Multidimensional Collective
by AmoeRaven
Summary: What if someone was given access to some of the most advanced technology in existence, and then let loose to roam the multiverse? Massive crossover.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a crossover between Star Trek, Stargate, Mass Effect, and potentially many other series. I do not own anything from the series I write about, I just do it to grow better as a writer and have fun.**

 **As mentioned above, I am writing this to grow better, so criticism is appreciated.**

 **This was inspired by VexMaster's StarGate: Galactic Imperium.**

* * *

 **[Running diagnostic. Error. Databanks corrupted. 40% recoverable. Cybernetics operating at 40% capability. Only 20% of standard cybernetics have been installed.]** A hollow female-sounding voice said next to my ear.

 _What was that?_ I rose upwards from where I had been lying on what felt like a metal floor. My body felt oddly heavy, and weirdly lumpy in places. I looked down to see what was up and-

I was almost covered in metal. From my head to my feet, metal plates and wiring crossed my bare body, and my right arm appeared to have been entirely replaced with an metal one with more than a few implements at the end that looked quite nasty. Even one of my eyes appeared to have been replaced, judging by the red dot that followed where I looked. If anything though, my vision had improved.

 _...I seem to have become a cyborg somehow. Why do I feel like I should be more worried about that?_

 **[Emotion inhibitors functioning at 100%.]** The voice from before replied.

 _Oh, that's why. Gonna have to see about fixing that, later though, because I suspect it's the only reason I'm not panicking right now. Hmm, guess that thing responding to me is some sort of database, which would make sense, considering, y'know, cyborg. Hmm, let's try something._ **[Memo: look into accessing database later]**. I thought, imagining myself typing the message at a keyboard.

 **[File "memo" created.]** The voice spoke.

 _...Not exactly what I wanted, but acceptable. Now, let's look around, shall we?_

The room I'd woken up in curved forwards, ending in a point, making the room look something like an arrowhead. The walls appeared to have been made of gold, and what looked like hieroglyphs were carved into them, animal figures, sideways men, and symbols making their way around the room. A console took up the majority of the front of the room, with what looked like windows overlooking it, though the view outside was blocked by a metal covering of some kind.

Another console (Which, like the rest of the room, appeared to be made of gold) in the back of the room overlooked the one in front, and behind that console loomed an arched door. There was one large object which looked like an sarcophagus, which I decided not to mess with. There were another three coffin-sized boxes, whose humming practically filled the room. I elected not to mess with those either.

Satisfied that I'd looked the room over sufficiently, I decided it was time to move on to the other rooms. I stepped up to the door, and was about to begin looking for a handle or button to activate it when it automatically slid open. The room beyond was much wider, though much of the space was still taken up by a large object. It appeared to be a large glowing column, with many cords and wires plugging into it's base. I cautiously stepped into the room, watching and keeping a wide berth between me and the device.

The column wasn't the only object the room contained though. There was a set of five large metal rings which had been stacked atop one another in the far right corner of the room, and in the back of the room, near the left corner and another set of doors, there was what looked like a box on the floor.

I decided that the box was the safest path of investigation, and made my way towards it. It took ten minutes, due to my having to skirt around the column, but I reached it. As I approached, it opened automatically, like the doors had. Unfortunately, when I inspected it, I found that it was empty. After a moment, I decided to take a quick look through the doors. I was to be disappointed though. The next room contained nothing but some funny looking crystals.

I returned to the room with the column. I carefully moved around it to where the rings where, a process that took five minutes. After some careful inspection, all they appeared to be were just large metal rings.

With my investigation of...wherever I was seemingly finished, I decided to return to the room with the consoles. As I entered, I noticed a door I had not seen before off to the side. I walked over to it, and waited, but nothing happened. I stood there for a moment, wondering why the door would not open automatically like the others I had encountered thus far had, before deciding that whatever it was, there was probably a good reason.

I walked over to one of the chairs in front of the first console, and collapsed onto it. _So, in the time I've been asleep, I was transported to an unknown place, turned into a cyborg, and then just...left alone? Is this going to turn out like Danganronpa, or Zero Escape? Am I going to be forced to kill somebody to escape?_ I sighed.

 _Alright, that's enough worrying. I'll deal with that problem when, if, it arrives. Now, there was something I wanted to do after I'd looked around, what_ \- **[Opening file "Memo". Look into database later.]** The voice suddenly interrupted. **[Oh, thanks. Open database.]**

 **[Warning, Database will attempt to restore all files, is-]**

 **[Yes, yes, just do it please.]**

 **[Attempting recovery of files. Suggest that B_King interface with nearby storage system.]**

 _Why would I need to-_

 _PAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAINPAIN_

As someone who's suffered from a lot of headaches, that one must have been the most painful I'd ever experienced. The closest analogy would be your head continuously being filled with water, only there would be no hole at the top for it to spill out. With my head feeling like it was about to burst, I staggered over to the console I'd spotted.

The voice in my head, the databank, I assumed, had said to "interface" with a storage system, but what did that mean!? I bashed the console a couple of times, but that accomplished nothing. **[Interface!]** I thought, as I brought my fist down towards the console once more, eyes clinched shut from the pain.

There was a sort of combined hiss/whistling sound as I felt something in my new mechanical arm move. Within a few moments my headache had lessened considerably, so I could open my eyes. From somewhere within my new arm extended a pair of tubes, which had pierced the console, and a monitor had appeared...and was apparently floating in midair. Ok. Whatever.

Letters and images rapidly flashed across the screen, before vanishing only to be replaced by new letters and images. I continued to watch this as my headache continued to lessen and the speed of what was happening on the monitor began to slow down. Soon, it had stopped completely.

 **[Database! What happened!?]** I shouted.

 **[B_King attempted recovery of database files, and due to insufficient storage space, had to divert files to next accessible storage system. In doing so, B_King interfaced with the system, claiming it for the Collective.]**

 _Ok, totally my fault for not waiting. What was that about claiming it though?...Collective? That the name of whoever did this to me?_

 **['Claimed' it? Specify what that means.]** I asked. Obviously, interfacing meant that thing I did with the tubes, which I felt was vaguely familiar, though I did not know where I recalled it from.

 **[B_King can now control and access data from any systems connected to the storage system via thought from the neural interface.]**

...Huh. Neat. **[Is there anything in the storage system about where we are?]**

 **[Negative.]**

Hmm. **[Anything about what this place is?]**

 **[Accessing…]**

I noticed an image of what looked like pyramids and accompanying words pop up on the monitor.

 **[B_King is the sole occupant of a modified Tel'tak-class cargo ship, modifications include additional power generators that have been tied to power the dimensional jump device in the cargo hold, and an advanced plasma weapon.]**

...Dimensional jump device? Plasma weapon? What?

 **[There is a file in the databanks that seems addressed to you.]**

 **[What!? Open it!]**

Another image appeared on the monitor's screen, this time it looked like a letter.

 _ **[Hello, 'King', if you're reading this, then you've woken up. Otherwise, you'd be dead, because you drifted into the sun. Yes, Mr. King, drifted into the sun. You see, you're on a spaceship. A whole day has passed since you remember going to sleep, and more than a few things happened. An alien spaceship, the same one you're standing in now, crashed into the mountain you'd been planning to hike around.**_

 _ **It's pilot crawled outside that door you tried to go through, gave you the mission of destroying that device you were so cautious about in the cargo bay, and told you it was a symbiotic being. The symbiote took control, asked you to lend it your body long enough to acquire aid, and then jumped down your throat when you offered it.**_

 _ **It died before said aid could arrive, but left you it's memories and the weapons of it's former host. You, being a dumbass, decided to leave immediately before the authorities arrived. You hopped into the ship, activated the device, and traveled to another universe. Unfortunately for you, A. it was not the universe the alien had traveled from, and B. you arrived in the immediate vicinity of a certain faction of cyborgs.**_

 _ **They captured you and this ship. They were about to turn you into another one of them when an...incident happened. The cube you were on was**_ _ **destroyed before you could be fully converted, and you and your ship were set adrift in space. Luckily for you, I happened to be passing along, searching for some entertainment, when I found your body. I grabbed you, dropped you off in the ship, and took you to another universe before hey could send a second ship along.**_

 _ **You'll regain your memory of how to use the Dimension Jump Device and pilot the ship within ten minutes of accessing this file, so from now on, consider the multiverse your oyster! Go build a universe spanning empire or two, become a superhero or whatever else you want. This is your second and only chance. Don't fuck it up.**_

 _ **~Archon.]**_

I stood there for a few seconds, contemplating the message. Then, I spoke.

 **[Database, would I be correct in assuming that you've been recording everything that's happened since I woke up?]**

 **[Affirmative]** The voice said.

 **[...Delete the last several minutes from your records, and secure that file so that only I can open it.]**

 **[Doing so now.]**

 **[Good. Now, do you have access to the sensor and navigational systems of the ship through the console I claimed?]**

 **[Yes.]**

 **[Can you pilot the ship to the nearest populated planet?]**

 **[Scanning and starting engines now.]**

 **[Well done Database.]**

While she...it, I guess, was doing that, I was staring at the hand from which the tubes had extended, contemplating the future.

 _"Build an empire", huh?_


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I am writing this partly to grow better, so please review and criticize.**

* * *

The planet my newly acquired ship was observing was, to be frank, a frozen blight on the space that surrounded it, fit only to be mined out of existence, which was exactly what the 25 life signs on the planet seemed to be doing. We'd arrived after about a five hour trip a few miles out of what Database had estimated was their sensor range, and were currently observing the planet quietly.

 **[What do the sensors tell us?]** I asked my intangible robotic assistant.

 **[The planet is composed mainly of rock and ice, with rich nickel deposits. The average temperature is There is one city, which is currently largely vacant of inhabitants. The population instead is spread across outlying minor settlements.]** She replied, voice as hollow as ever.

 **[How many lifeforms did you detect?]**

 **[No more than 25.]**

 _Hmm. It's a start, and so long as I proceed carefully, I should be able to assimilate them._

It hadn't been very hard for me to put together the universe I had been to. After all, how many universes have factions of cyborgs who go around converting others into cyborgs?

 **[Can you identify which of these settlements is the most isolated?]** I asked.

 **[Yes.]**

During the trip to the planet, I had practiced with my new cyborg abilities, and had learned a few things. First: If I used a variation of the technique I used to interact with Database where, instead of typing on a "keyboard", I imagined looking into the "monitor", I could see whatever she brought up without her having to use the floating monitor. Second: I could sense the console (which had turned green and black for some reason) I had claimed, and, if I focused, the nanomachines Database had told me were now expanding throughout it, upgrading it and improving its systems.

Third, thanks my new cybernetics, I was now several times stronger than the average human. ...Hmm. When did I start thinking of myself as different from other humans?...Anyways, I tested this crushing the metal box in the cargo bay, which had crumpled like a tin can when I had applied some force against it. With my new abilities, I could probably take on a group of unarmed humans with only some trouble.

In my head, I watched as she zoomed in on a region of the planet, which bloomed into detail. What looked like a large box, at least several meters long, was now visible, along with a …tube of some sort that had been inserted into a nearby mountain.

 **[This region appears to be home to only one inhabitant, who resides in the rectangular structure. He appears to be a miner, extrapolating from the equipment in the structure and what he went into the tunnel with. The nearest inhabitant is over three miles away]**

Hmm.

 **[Are these cybernetics durable enough to withstand a large fall, Database?]** I asked.

 **[Enough to withstand a fall from a dozen meters.]**

If I could, I would have grinned.

 **[Perfect.]**

* * *

John Warwick was tired from his long day in the mine, and was eagerly looking forward to get back to his shelter on the surface. Mining hadn't been his first choice for a job, but it payed the bills, and it was fulfilling. And there had been that lucky break with the asteroid; Selling the footage of the collision to the extranet corporations had made all the residents of Gilead a little richer.

Rich enough, in fact, that some left the planet for greener pastures. Within the decade, the population had gone from 221, to a meager 25. _Still_ , he thought as he stepped through the door leading outside of the tunnel, _there might be less people around, but all of us left are a lot closer._ As he walked across it, he observed Gilead's landscape.

It consisted mostly of hard stone, and the occasional patch of ice. There was no greenery of any sorts to be found. Sometimes, he wondered what the Systems Alliance had been thinking when they called for colonization of the planet.

 _Hmm, that's strange._ He thought as he walked around a large crater a few meters from his home that had not been there when he left for the mine that morning. It was deep, like something had impacted it at a great speed. _Probably a stray meteorite._ He thought to himself, shaking it off.

Soon, he had arrived home. Something was unnerving him about the place, an unnatural stillness around the place. He ignored it, shrugging it off as exhaustion from working in the mine all day. He opened the door.

There was a hiss, and a sudden all consuming pain in his neck. He began to fall backwards, only for someone to grab his arm and jerk him inside. He looked down to his neck, trying frantically to figure out what had happened. Two tubes extending from somewhere his darkening vision could not see had pierced his neck.

The tubes retracted, and he felt someone grab him and lift him into the air. Whoever it was carried him over to his bed, and placed him on it. "I am deeply sorry for this." He heard a sincere-sounding metallic voice say, before his vision went dark.

* * *

I sat down in a nearby chair which was next to a table. I had been lurking in the building for about an hour, waiting for its owner to return from mining. Finally though, he had approached the building, and thanks to my new cybernetic eye, I could see him even through the walls. As he had opened the door, I had activated the tubes which carried my nanomachines, and he was finished, knocked unconscious by shock, some agent carried in the tubes, or both.

Even now, I could sense as the nanomachines multiplied throughout his body, converting spare minerals and whatever resources there were inside him into more nanomachines. Soon, they would begin making small structures inside his body. I truly was sorry to have done this to him, because nobody deserves what had happened to me to happen to them.

The problem, is that I also cared too much for my safety in an unknown, probably hostile universe to not do it.

To distract myself from my philosophical musings, I studied the body of the stranger I'd basically just doomed to turning into a cybernetic monstrosity. He was wearing a skin-tight white armor, presumably to help him survive the lack of atmosphere outside, with a helmet whose visor was tinted black so it concealed his facial features. Something about his arm drew my attention though.

I walked over to more closely inspect it. Upon some observation, I saw that an object of some sort was disturbing the armor sleeve. After some futzing around, I managed to get his arm out of the armor so I could analyze it further. The object appeared to be some sort of skeletal apparatus which stretched from where his arm connected to his shoulder to his hand. **[Hey, Data, is there anything like this in the files?]** I questioned.

 **[Inconclusive without further data.]** She replied. All right then.

I removed the device from his arm and studied it for a moment. Then, I did what was quickly becoming common with me and unknown machines, and pierced it with a tube. There was a crackle, and a puff of smoke. Soon, it had changed from it's silvery metal color to a black and green color scheme.

 **[So, Data?]** I asked.

I was surprised when a horribly familiar, except for how it was (again) green and black, holographic display popped up around the arm holding the device. A slightly feminine holographic model of the upper body of a human being, with what looked like some additional metal plating and wires, also appeared.

 **[The device is some combination of a manufacturing and diagnostic tool, with an on-board computer connected to a larger network.]** The model said in a familiar voice.

 **[Data?]** I asked.

 **[The previous owner of this device had downloaded this model. I appropriated it and modified it.]** She said.

 **[Good for you.]** I said, and this time, I was able to grin.

 **[Now, can you tell me if there is something called a Codex on this?]** I asked.

 **[Yes, it seems to be a database containing information about this galaxy and it's history.]**

 _FuckfuckfuckFUCK-_

 **[Does it say what the current year is!?]** I shouted, descending into a panic so large it managed to overcome the emotional inhibitors.

 **[According to it, the year is 2184.]** She said, as emotionless as ever.

 _Damn it, I don't remember when that is! Is it before, or after Eden Prime!? Have the Collectors began abducting colonists yet!? How many years do I have before the Reapers arrive and faceroll the galaxy!?_

 **[Does it mention a Commander Shepard!?]**

 **[Some details about a career in the military, how they fended off an attack on the "Citadel" from a ship called The Sovereign, and their death a few months ago.]**

 _Ok, if I remember the plot of 2 correctly, that gives me two or three years to prepare. …Damn it, I don't think even that will be enough time, even with what remains of the Borg technology files in the databank._

 **[Ok, Data, we no longer have the time to lollygag. Bring the ship here now! I'll grab the new recruit and as many supplies as I can carry.]**

I turned around to grab him, not even paying attention to her reply, though I somehow knew she had replied in the affirmative. I was unable to grab him though, because he was already up. He was sitting there on the bed, still as the grave.

"Hello?" I asked tentatively, reading myself to attack just in case.

" **[I am Drone One-of-One. Classification: Labor. What are your orders?]"** I heard him say, simultaneously aloud and in my head.

I walked over and inspected his suit to see if the holes from the tubes were still there, but luckily it seemed like a store of omni-gel in the armor had repaired them.

 **[Good to meet you, now grab as much stuff as you can carry.]** I said as the sounds of thrumming engines approached outside. He dutifully obliged, walking, shuffling really, over to a nearby locker. I, meanwhile, grimly contemplated the future.

 _We're going to need more drones._


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: As always, please review and criticize.**

* * *

I inspected the items that had been brought on board. A bunch of mining equipment – useful if they needed to bust into a hardened structure, but little else – some household items, a few canisters of omni and medi-gel, and a pistol. I did not remember enough about the series to identify it, but it looked like a variation of the pistol you pick up at the beginning of ME 2.

 **[The M3-Predator.]** I heard Data's voice say.

 **[How did you know that, Data?]** I asked.

 **[The consequential memories of Drone One of One have been stored in the database. I merely looked it up.]** She said.

 **[Neat. Hey, does this Omni-tool have the program that turns it into a weapon?]** I asked, activating the useful tool mentally.

 **[Yes.]** She simply replied.

 _Alright then, how to trigger it? I should be able to make it activate mentally…_

I did my best to picture the melee attacks from the third game, and flicked my arm. There was a whirring sound, and one I opened my eyes, I saw that a red gauntlet had formed around the lower half of my arm. Where the gauntlet met my fingers, Freddy Krueger style claws had spawned into existence, except for the thumb, which was bare. One of the claws had almost impaled poor Drone One, who was standing a couple feet away, through the jaw. He had taken the

I moved my hand around for a few moments, then walked over to a wall. I carefully put one claw tip against it, and sliced downwards. Where it had torn through, it left a deep gouge in the wall. I inspected the claws for a moment, before speaking. "Nice."

With my inspection of my nifty new weapon over with for the moment, I deactivated it and turned my thoughts to other matters. We had left One's former home as quickly as we possibly could, possibly even quicker than when I had to jump into the place, but even still the colony's sensors probably tagged us. News about us could not be allowed to get out to the galaxy at large, not yet.

 **[Data, what are the current positions of the life signs?]** I asked.

 **[Most have returned to their homes, with two exceptions. One, is the life sign at the spaceport,]** The image of two large platforms connected to a large building that looked like a warehouse with a tall tower a few meters away appeared in my mind. **[, presumably the spaceports sole remaining employee. The other, is the two lifesigns at the mayor's office.]** The image of a large square building, similar to One's old home, only sized up three stories, replaced the image of the spaceport in my mind.

 **[According to Drone One-of-One's memories, they too will leave for home soon.]** She finished.

I spent a few moments thinking. Then, I spoke.

 **[Data, how close do you think you could drop us off to the airport?]** I asked.

 **[Approximately a mile away. The city is covered by an airtight dome which I would not be able to penetrate without use of shipboard weapons, alerting them to our presence.]** She said.

 **[Is the communications array also within this dome?]** I asked.

 **[Yes.]** She replied.

 **[Then it doesn't matter. The time for stealth has passed, and now is the time for speed. We need to assimilate as many as possible within a short time-frame, without letting anybody alert the galaxy at large about us. As such, we must not let anybody acquire any ships in the spaceport, and we must destroy the hardware that would let them broadcast a signal.]** I stated..

 **[Understood.]** She said.

 **[Alright then. You'll drop us a mile out from the spaceport, and while we are securing that, you can do whatever you feel is necessary to keep a signal from getting out.]** I said.

 **[Acknowledged.]** She stated.

 **[Then let's get started.]** I said.

* * *

The streets of the city were deserted. It was sorta creepy, considering that there had once been over 200 people living here once. Nevertheless, I shook it off, and continued towards the objective. I looked over my shoulder towards One, who had taken off his helmet. He was not faring well.

His skin had turned an ashy grey, and the veins of his face looked clogged. It looked like something was trying to push through his skin. In fact, looking closely, I could see bits of metal poking through his hair. I had an idea for when we got to the spaceport, and after wards.

One looked very, very sick man. If the guy inside heard him calling for help, he would have to come help, or else he'd be even more of a bastard then me. This would give either of us enough time to grab him and hold him long enough for either one of us to stab him with a tube full of nanomachines.

Then we would have have enough time to make any ship other than ours incapable of leaving. Nobody would be able to leave the system to alert people that way. Data was busy blowing up the communications relay, so nobody would be able to access the extranet. The inhabitants of this planet would be trapped.

Where we went next would depend on what happened. It would either be the medical center for this rock, to grab some tools and medicine for analysis, or the security station, to prevent others from grabbing weapons to kill us with. If I remembered correctly, Borg shields didn't do so well against kinetic weapons in the show and series, so I did not want to see what would happen if one of us got shot by bullets moving at light-speed.

 **[We have arrived.]** I heard One's voice say. My attention returned from my thoughts, and I noticed that we were 10 meters away from the tower, standing in front of a door leading into the warehouse and/or terminal. Looking around, I saw that there was a shuttle on one of the platforms. Well, time to put the plan to action.

 **[Drone, go over and lay down in front of the tower.]** I stopped speaking for a moment to point to the spot in question, directly in front of the tower's door. **[I shall call for whoever is inside to come out and help you. If you get the chance, assimilate them.]** I finished.

 **[Acknowledged.]** The drone said, and began to walk off. I quickly placed myself against the wall farthest from the door and One's position, in the hopes that the person inside wouldn't be able to see me when they stepped outside. I looked up, towards the top of the tower, where I could make out the fuzzy outline of a figure sitting on a chair through the walls.

"Heeellp! Heeellp!" I said, doing my best to simulate the unique tone of someone in agonizing amounts of pain. I did this for several moments, then I heard the sound of a door opening. I peeked around the side of the wall, and saw someone in another one of those suits step through the door. Though their visor was down, their face was turned so I wasn't able to make out features.

"What the-Jesus, John, is that you!? What happened to you!?" I heard them ask as they rushed over to his prone body. _John, huh? Going to have to remember that._ The voice sounded female. I began doing my best to sneak up behind her. I was about halfway there when, off in the distance to my left, I noticed the briefest flicker of something lancing down from the sky through the great dome over our heads, and then, an explosion large enough to be seen from where we were, a good half a mile away.

Data, you beautiful database you.

Predictably, the traffic controller was shocked and hurriedly turned to look at the explosion. "What the-" I heard them begin to say. She was unfortunately stopped by the air being sucked out of the dome through the massive hole in it, and she fell to the ground clutching her throat. Fortunately, a barrier formed over the hole before she could suffocate.

Unfortunately, this did not save her from us. She regained her senses just in time for One to pick her up by the waist, and grab her, pinning her arms to her sides. "John!? What are you doing!?" She shouted. Before she could react, I stabbed her in the neck with the tubes. She went limp in the drones arms.

I stepped around so I could view her from the front. "You still conscious?" I asked. She didn't reply. I crouched down to stare her in the eyes, and waved my finger back and forth in front of her face. Her eyes followed it. _So, some sort of paralytic agent then?_ I thought. "Ah. You are conscious then. Sorry about that, as I expect you're going to be in a great amount of pain soon. I wish I could do something about that, but I don't exactly have a lot of medicine on me." I said.

I turned to One. **[Keep hold of her, she's going upstairs with us.]** I said.

 **[Acknowledged.]** He replied.

We trekked up the long series of stairs inside the tower, and finally came to the control room. There were a few consoles, a monitor, some chairs, and a cot in one corner, heavily slept in by the looks of it. I ordered One to lay her on the cot and sit in one of the chairs, while I assimilated the computers.

When I had complete control, I made the plate glass panels, which slid away into recesses whenever a ship was arriving or leaving, unable to do their function. Then, I inspected the files to see how many shuttles the colony had. I found out they only had the one out on the platform, to be used in search and rescue operations and carrying an injured person to the hospital.

Leaving One to watch over the soon to be recruit, I walked back down the stairs and out onto the platform. I spent a few moments figuring out how to open the shuttles doors, and walked in when I did. After assimilating the controls, I commanded the autopilot to head for my location if someone were to activate it, and to immediately deactivate, and fry the controls for, the engines if someone were to try to manually piloting it.

For good measure, I attached one of the mining charges I'd taken from the ship to one of the engines, doing my best to hide it from immediate view. If someone were to keep the engines activated, the shuttle was to send a signal to the charge, activating it and subsequently wrecking at least the engines, if not the shuttle itself.

Finished foiling any attempts to leave, I walked back up the tower. There, I found the traffic controller sitting in much the same fashion One had been in when he woke up. "Designation?" I asked.

 **[I am Drone Two-of-Two. Classification: Transport.]** She uttered mechanically. **[Note: Ask Database for her name later.]** I thought to myself.

 **[File "note" created.]** The voice I now recognized as Data's spoke.

"Alright, you two grab everything not nailed down and take it to the unoccupied platform, except for any weapons, omni-gel, or medi gel. You get to carry that with you." I said. They did as I ordered, marching down the stairs and out the door as the amount of items they carried grew too heavy or unwieldy to hold.

"Wait. Let me grab that." I said as Two began to go downstairs with the last of the furniture. I grabbed one heavy looking chair by one leg and hefted it over my shoulder. She resumed carrying out her objectives. By the time they were finished, we had added one more pistol to our arsenal, along with a couple canisters each of omni-gel and medi-gel. We quickly marched off towards our next destination: the security center for this little colony.

It took a good thirty minutes even at our harried pace, but we eventually arrived. The security center was a small squat building, with one door and a long window facing the street. Through the window, the blurry figure of someone could be seen moving around.

"I'd hoped we'd get here before any of the colonists, but no big deal." I said airily. We were positioned in the shadows of an alley a few meters away from the building. "I'm going to smash the window, and enter the building through there. While I do that, I want you two to provide covering fire." I told my two robotic minions, handing One the pistol we had taken from his home.

 **[Acknowledged.]** They replied.

Lifting the chair, I swung it around a few times, and then, I swung it with all my not inconsiderable strength towards the window. It smashed through, and continued well beyond into the building. Not stopping to see if the shadow was readying to shoot me, because I trusted my cyborgs would stop them, I began running toward toward the building.

You'd be surprised how fast even a half-converted Borg can move when they put their mind to it. Within a moment, I had covered the three meters between the mouth of the alleyway and the building. I heard shooting begin as I leapt a good six feet into the air, and through the window.

I kept my head down and looked around. I saw where the gunfire from inside the building had been coming from. A couple feet to my right a woman was crouched under the window, gaping at me in shock. "Hello!" I said, and punched her in the face. "Sorry." I said as I stood up. Sadly, she couldn't hear me, as that one punch had been strong enough to knock her out. I jabbed her in the neck with the tubes. I heard a gasp behind me.

I quickly turned around. Someone had just exited from a back room, carrying what looked awfully like a rifle. For a moment, everything stopped like time had paused. This moment was shattered as I leapt behind a table that had been flipped over, gunfire riddling the wall and table with minute bullets..

I sat there for a moment, trying to figure out what to do, when I heard a couple more shots from outside sound out, and the man with the assault let out a sudden grunt, and fell. I peeked over the edge of the table, and saw that one of the drones outside had, with the aim of an expert, shot him in the arm and knee. Not taking any chances, I pushed the table along the ground until I was by the gun, and picked it up.

With the enemy disarmed, I jabbed him in the neck with the tubes, applied some medi-gel to his wounds and collapsed into the chair. **[Come in here.]** I tiredly ordered the drones outside. When they had done so and stood in front of me, I ordered them to grab anything they found that seemed like it would be useful. I, meanwhile, stood watch over the soon-to-be new recruits.

After about an hour, they began to sit up. The woman first, and then, a few minutes later, the former owner of the assault rifle. "Designations?" I asked.

 **[I am Drone Three-of-Four.]** The woman replied. **[Classification: Tactical.]** She finished.

 **[I am Drone Four-of-Four.]** The man said in turn. **[Classification: Tactical.]** He finished.

"Go help the other two collect everything, will you?" I asked. They complied, and marched into the backroom the others had left through. I remained in my seat, thinking. I had assimilated 4 of the colonists so far, taking almost one-fifth of the colonists away from any defense they could muster. My next target would probably be city hall, which Data had said contained two life-forms.

...Hmm. Speaking of, it'd been awhile since I'd heard from her.

 **[Data?]** I asked.

 **[Yes, sir?]** I heard her reply.

 **[Saw the communications array going up in flames. Have there been any attempts to get communication off planet?]** I asked.

 **[None successful.]** She replied.

 **[Good. The mayor and his assistant still at city hall?]** I inquired.

 **[Yes, although they have been joined by two more lifeforms. The hospital also now has two lifeforms.]**

 _Ah, they've figured out that they're under attack, and are moving to secure resources and VIP's...They'll probably be moving the civilians somewhere secure._

 **[Have any of the memories we've recovered mentioned something about an emergency shelter?]** I asked.

 **[Ah, yes. An abandoned mine was converted into one 5 months ago.]** She said.

 **[...Torch the entrance to the place.]** I ordered.

 **[Affirmative.]** She replied.

If we allowed them to go in and tried to go in after them, we'd be overwhelmed by force of numbers. We couldn't just shoot them willy nilly either; we needed as many drones as we could get. No, better to keep them up here on the surface, scattered and confused, then down in that bunker, organized and collected.

I was shaken from these thoughts by the arrival of all four of my drones. Each of them carried bags full of what looked like weapons, armor, and canisters off omni-gel and medi-gel. "Ooh, goodies." I said. "Each of you grab a gun from the bag and grab any piece of armor that'll fit." I ordered.

Soon, all the drones were armed and armored. We stepped into the garage of the police department, where there was a big six-wheeled truck parked. We hopped aboard, stowed the bags in the back, and I drove us off to our next destination: the hospital.

Soon, it would be time to get a little more daring.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. I think it might be my worst yet.**

 **Frankieu: Soon, I hadn't really expected the "Arc" on Gilead to carry on this long. Also, these tactical tubes aren't going to be up to snuff compared to the originals, with the missing database files.**

 **Lavelle1984: I'm probably not going to be as good as, say, Vexmaster, at combining technologies and such, but I will do my best.**

 **CrazedGammaMan1721: Yep.**

 **jsrd: Not when you're having to worry about the Reapers steamrolling over you it's not. Also, thanks.**

 **Mr. Exterminatus & Reaper362: Thanks.**

 **As always, please review and criticize.**

* * *

During our trip to the hospital, we came across another vehicle being driven by two of the colonists. They were ordered to leave their vehicle, lest they be shot or blown up. When they did, the drones stabbed them in the neck with the tubes. Their paralyzed bodies were loaded into our truck, while Two and Three jumped into their truck and started piloting it.

We drove through the abandoned streets of the capital of this barren rock, Ephesus, I would learn it was called after digging through the databank. As someone who had grown up in a fairly small city, and even then had never ventured out much, it was still fairly unnerving to see a place so abandoned. The trucks rumbled through the silent streets at a fairly decent clip.

We would probably arrive at the hospital within the hour. Not for the first time, I wondered about what whoever had planned this colony had been thinking. The hospital was positioned on the outskirts of the colony, at least half a mile away from the closest building. Had they planned for additional colonists? It seemed to me like there wouldn't be many colonists looking to settle an airless rock like this one, useful only for it's few resources.

 **[Perhaps they expected colonists from neighboring Elysium to immigrate.]** Data chimed in.

 **[...Elysium?]** I asked.

 **[Situated on the second planet in the Vetus system, Elysium is one of humanity's oldest colonies, has a population of 8.3 million, with a further two hundred thousand living in orbital habitats.]** She replied.

...Fantastic. Just. Fantastic. My day gets better and better.

 **[How many ships are in the area?]** I asked.

 **[5 armed starships, and 10 civilian ships.]** She stated.

 **[...That seems like a low number.]** I said.

 **[Elysium has multiple mobile defense cannons on it's surface, and the several Mass Relays nearby ensures that aid is but a few minutes away.]** She said.

I'd been wondering when my bad luck would strike again. _Well then, it looks like we need to speed up the schedule again. First though, we need to deal with those in the hospital._ I thought.

By this time, the hospital, a small five story structure, had come into sight. When we approached the entrance, we stopped the trucks, jumped out, and stormed the building. The occupants had holed themselves up in a room on the top floor when they heard us enter. I grabbed a couple grenades that, searching through the memories of one of the people assimilated at the police department told me were flash-bangs, unhooked the pin, and after two seconds, tossed it into the room.

At the sound of the explosion, we rushed into the room, where the colonists were lurching around, disoriented by the explosion. They were quickly wrestled to the ground, and stabbed by an assimilation tube. While they were "cooking", we looted the place for all it was worth, grabbing surgical equipment, medi-gel, and anything that looked like it would be useful. After we were finished, and they had woken up, we regrouped at the entrance and stored everything in the first vehicle.

Before we left, I gave some of the drones new orders.

 **[Drone 1, I am designating you as the leader of...Fire-team 01. Drones 2, 3, 4, and 5 will be joining this team, you can have Truck 02, and bring along two of the bags containing armor and weapons. Your orders are to assimilate as many colonists as possible. Coordinate with Data on this. Upon the assimilation of five individuals, you are to repeat this process.]** I commanded.

 **[Command confirmed.]** The drone replied after a moment. Me and my three remaining drones piled into Truck 01, his team of five climbed into Truck 02, and we parted ways. I set a course for a house that, according to Data's latest scans, contained another two life-forms. _Now that I've done that, we should begin expanding exponentially. With almost two-fifths of the colonists already under my control, the others should fall soon._

Soon, barring anything else sneaking up on us, everyone would be assimilated, we could get off this rock, and I could begin preparing for the Reapers. I turned my thoughts to planning for the future, meanwhile, in the back of my head, a sort of buzzing appeared.

* * *

"What do you think this is Cody, another Batarian attack?" Caleb, the mayor of Ephesus, Gilead's sole city, asked.

"I doubt it. Why would they attack an insignificant colony like this? Why aren't we knee-deep in Batarians right now? Why not attack Elysium?

If they had more weapons like the one that smashed through the dome and into the communications array, they'd be able to tear through the Second Fleet easily. No, I think whoever this is are just a small lucky band of slavers who found some ancient Prothean weapon and are using it to grab some poor people." Cody Rhodes, chief of the colony's security force said.

Cody was an Alliance veteran. He'd served in the First Contact War, and during the Assault on Torfan after the Skyllian Blitz. He'd retired afterwards, having felt that after serving the Alliance for nigh on thirty years and in two of its wars that his luck had just about run out, and that he had served long enough.

He'd retired to the colony of Gilead where he had joined the police force. He'd steadily worked his way up the ranks until, because almost everyone had left with their new-found riches including the then police chief, he'd been promoted to head of the newly organized security force.

"Alright then, can you remind me what you're people are doing then?" The mayor asked, studying data on his omni-tool. "I sent Jameson and Clark to retrieve the weapons and armor from the station, but they haven't reported back in the last hour." There was an unstated implication there, that neither of them chose to comment on. "Olivia is in one of the upstair rooms trying to coordinate the civilians and get them here, and Jake is on the roof keeping an eye out for that ship." Cody reported.

"Bring them here? Why? This place wouldn't hold up to an attack." The mayor said, turning his attention from the Omni-tool to stare at the veteran. "This place wasn't my first choice, believe me, but with the entrance to the emergency shelter destroyed and that ship probably watching to make sure it isn't dug out, we don't have a lot of options left.

They aren't likely to blow this place up with the six of us in it, you can't sell a dead slave after all, and the more people there are here, the less likely that outcome will be. So my current plan is to fortify this place as much as we possibly can, arm as many civilians as possible, and hold these slavers until those idiots at Elysium or Grissom's Academy notice." Cody said, posture in classic military fashion.

The mayor was silent for a few minutes, then he spoke. "Sounds like a plan to me." He said, rising from his seat. "Where do you need me, 'boss?'" He asked. Cody considered this for a moment, then replied. "For now, go make sure all the doors and windows are locked, then begin piling furniture in front of them. Get your assistant, wherever he is, to help." Cody said, turning towards the door grabbing a gun from his back.

"Where are you going?" The mayor asked, appraising the furniture in the office.

"Me? I'm going to go lay as many traps as I can for any visitors, then, I'll find the highest point around here that I can, and I'll use this." He indicated the gun held in his hands. ", to put a neat little hole through the head of anything that shows up and looks unfriendly." He said, walking through the door that opened automatically.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: As always, please review and criticize.**

* * *

Two hours after I and One had parted ways, and already more than half the colony had fallen to us. One had assimilated another four colonists, and I three; we had found one creeping around the streets after assimilating the two at the house. I had sent one drone off to One's group to form another fire-team with the four he had collected, but the other two remained with us.

I was about to begin driving off towards the location of another pair of colonists when I was interrupted.

 **[Sir?]** I heard Data's voice ask inside my head,

 **[Yes, Data?]** I asked, tuning into the channel we used to communicate. I was surprised to hear something new on the channel, a sort of buzzing, like a dozen voices all talking at once.

 **[I estimated that you would like to be informed that the remaining colonists have grouped together in one location.]** She explained.

Damn, I'd hoped we'd be able to prevent that. That increases the likelihood of casualties for both sides significantly, even without a straight up assault. Well, I didn't expect this to be easy.

 **[Alright then. Fire-team 01 and 02, stop what you are doing and wait for further orders.]** I said. As soon as I'd finished saying that, the buzzing had stopped. Curious.

 **[Data, what was that buzzing?]** I asked.

 **[The Collective.]** She answered simply.

 **[...Can you clarify?]** I said after a minute.

 **[That "buzzing" is the Collective communicating with each other.]** She said.

 **[Why am I only hearing it now?]** I asked.

 **[The Collective did not have much cause to communicate with each other while under your direct supervision. Upon the separation of drones into teams, and having to coordinate with me, the Collective had cause to communicate more heavily.]** She said.

… **[Makes sense.]** I said. **[Now, back to our original topic. Where are the remaining colonists?]** I continued.

 **[City hall.]** She said. In my head, the image of City Hall was brought up again, though the image seemed to have been updated since.

I examined it much more closely this time, trying to spot any flaws in design. As I mentioned before, it looked like an up-scaled version of One's former home, with polished metal walls and some windows on the upper floors. I noticed that the windows appeared to have been barricaded from the inside with metal tables.

 _Well, not getting in there that way._ I returned to examining the picture. There was what looked like a relay tower with a small platform on the top at one end of the building. Since Data hadn't destroyed it, they must be unable to communicate through it, or at least hadn't attempted too.

The main doors, recessed into the front of the building, were not an option. They had undoubtedly been barricaded heavily, and were probably heavily defended. On top of that, the street leading up to city hall and the doors was out in the open, leaving any half-decent shot able to pick us off at will. The same probably went for any other obvious doors into the building.

So, the main entrance was a no-go. The windows had been barricaded, and while we could probably blast our way through after enough time, time wasn't something we had in abundance. Hmm.

 **[Data, have the memories of anyone assimilated shown anything about maintenance tunnels running underneath the colony, particularly about one that connects to city hall?]** I asked.

 **[Yes, Fire team 01 assimilated the chief engineer of this colony, whose duties consisted of maintaining the tunnels, including one that connected to city hall, and important installations like the dome.]** She replied.

 **[Ok, that sounds like the most likely choice for an entrance. Can you bring up a blueprint of city hall, and overlap it with the life signs of any colonists?]** I questioned.

There was a fleeting moment while she did what I asked, and then the picture changed, turning into a blue and white layout of the building with blinking dots. The outline of a tunnel made it's way underneath the building, turned, and ramped up to a door on the ground floor.

There were four dots on the ground floor, right in front of the main doors. Another two dots were on the floor above them, I guessed that they were keeping watch on the streets through the windows. One dot was on the roof of the building, probably keeping watch either on the streets or for the ship. A final dot stood on top of the tower; probably a sniper.

 _Fire-teams 01 and 02 storming in through the maintenance tunnel should be shocking enough that the four on the ground floor will be unable to react in time to kill any of them. The people on the upper floors will have advanced warning, but with only two people on the second, and another two two levels above, they probably won't be able to do much. … That's not good enough. Hmm, what to do to distract them?_

I sat in silence, thinking. After a few moments, I had an idea, and then, a plan.

* * *

For my first time piloting an airborne vehicle with my own two hands, I think I was doing well. After deactivating most of the traps on it, we had boarded the shuttle at the spaceport and took off. I narrowly maneuvered the shuttle around one of the taller buildings in the colony, my team of drones stoically holding onto whatever part of the shuttle was handy. We were a few minutes away from reaching city hall, where, if all things went as planned, we would assimilate the remaining colonists while not suffering a casualty of our own.

We could then leave to find an unclaimed planet of our own, to build and prepare for the Reapers with what little time we had. Hmm. How to do that, though? We had nowhere near the numbers to fight them on the ground, and while I could think of a few, distasteful, ways to get them, we would still be unlikely to have anywhere near enough by the time they arrived. Not to mention that I'm not exactly eager to send the cyborgs connected to my head anywhere near the Reapers and that indoctrination field they have.

Even without the manpower issue, there was the matter of resources. All I had to my name was one ship and 17 drones. There were millions of reapers and they were always making more allies via indoctrination. I had some ideas on how to solve that issue too, ideas that could actually be implemented without compromising my morals more than they already are. All I would need is a few moments of peace, the ship, and some drones.

I noticed that we had nearly arrived at city hall, with only a mile of streets and buildings between us. After a minute, I slowed the shuttle's engines to a halt, and set it to hover. Having done that, I cast my voice out onto the network connecting me with everything that had been assimilated. **[Are you in position, Fire-team 01 and 02?]**

 **[Affirmative.]** Ten voices replied, as monotone and emotionless as ever.

 **[On my signal then.]** I said.

I gunned the shuttle's' engines, we rocketed around the building we were hiding behind, and onto the street leading to city hall. Almost immediately, a bullet impacted the window in front of me. "The hell!?" I shouted, almost yanking back from the holographic control panel in front of me. The bullet had not managed to fully drill through the tough window, and so instead was lodged there.

I immediately began moving the shuttle from side to side, hoping to prevent the sniper from getting another shot into the window. **[Where did that come from!?]** I asked. There was a brief, but intense, bout of buzzing, and then silence again. **[Analysis suggests that the shot came from over four thousand feet away, at an angle of 110 degrees, and at .01 c of light-speed. In short, the tower atop city hall.]** Data said.

Four thousand feet? Who is that guy, Simo Häyhä!? And what was with that analysis? Judging by that buzz, the Collective had at least helped her with the analysis. ….Oh, that's right. The Collective in the show could act as brainpower to analyze things. That's why they were able to adapt to things, if I recall.

My brief dive into my thoughts and memories was interrupted by another shot impacting into the shuttle, though fortunately not the window. "Damn it!" I shouted. Fortunately, we were quite close to city hall by that point. **[Get Ready!]** I sent across the network. The sound of weapons being loaded and checked, and something revving up, emanated from the back of the shuttle.

At the last second before we crashed into the second floor, I turned the shuttle, causing only the side of the shuttle to crash into the building. I deactivated the shuttle's engines. The thermal outlines of three humans could be seen through the wall. **[Now!]** I shouted.

A drone slid open the shuttle doors, revealing the rest of them standing there, guns at the ready, and an installed machine gun. They all began to fire upon the second floor, riddling it with bullets. The people inside took cover from the rain of bullets as best they could and firing back whenever they could sneak an arm outside without it getting shot off.

The sound of gunfire could not be heard coming from the ground floor however. The plan seemed to be working like a charm. While we held the attention of those on the upper floors, Fire-teams 01 and 02 were capturing and assimilating the people on the ground floor. Before the people on the other floors would know what was happening, they would have team's of drones sneaking up behind them.

Unfortunately, that sniper on the roof had other ideas. A bullet managed to get in under the door and impacted the shields of a drone, taking said shields down in one shot. "Fuck!" I typed a command into the holographic control panel, causing the shuttle's engines to start again. We moved forward, ascending rapidly until we had moved above the roof. I was getting tired of that sniper's shenanigans.

Halting the engines for the moment, I turned the shuttle towards the tower. I handed the controls off to a drone and walked into the back of the shuttle, checking my weapons as I did. When we had installed the machine gun, we had removed the seats to free up space. The drones had taken cover as best they could, the open shuttle doors leaving the sniper open to shoot them. **[Gun the engines!]** I ordered the drone.

As we passed over the tower, I jumped out of the shuttle. I spent a moment that felt like an eternity in the air, and then slammed into the platform. I did my best roll with the impact, because I'd read somewhere that that lessened the damage from a long fall. That didn't work so well. Instead of rolling, I fell on it spread eagle.

When I finally got up, the sniper had his gun at my head. I took a moment to analyze them – they had pink and white armor, like Ashley's from the beginning of the first game, and a big sniper rifle. **[Shoot him!]** I shouted over the Collective network. Bullets impacted against the armors shields, and he turned his head slightly to look at the shuttle circling the tower. Slightly, was all I needed.

I jumped up and knocked the sniper rifle out of his hand, but he had better reflexes than I gave him credit for. Before I could do anything else, he punched me in the face with his free hand, which fortunately didn't hurt much due to the my helmet absorbing much of the impact and my cybernetic durability absorbing the rest. He tried to bring the rifle to bear again, but, with all my cybernetically enhanced strength, I wrenched it out of his hands and threw it to the roof of city hall below us.

In retaliation, he punched me in my armored stomach and elbowed me in the face. I tried to punch him, but he fluidly dodged, grabbed my arm, and pulled. The combined momentum of my punch and him pulling was enough to overcome my strength, and I fell to the ground near the railing surrounding the platform. I got up, only to see that he had pulled a Carnifex pistol from somewhere.

I charged forward, and he fired, the bullets impacting my armor's shield. I punched, but again, he dodged, putting his pistol to the back of my helmet as he did. He pulled the trigger two times, they slammed into the shield, and it fizzled. Fine, two can play that game mister Sniper man. I pulled out my own carnifex, ready to shoot, but he grabbed the gun, pressed the pistol against my arms armor, and -

 _PAIN_

Motherfucker! The recently shot arm grabbed his, and _pulled_. There was a _snap_ , and he moved forward, only for my fist to slam into his chest. There was another snapping sound, and he flew to the other side of the platform. I fell to a knee, holding my wounded arm. I searched frantically for the program in my arm that dispensed medi-gel, and activated it.

I sighed as the medi-gel was slathered against my arm by some internal mechanism of the armor, some anaesthetic or pain reliever going into effect and dulling the pain to near non-existence. I got up from where I was and walked over to where the sniper laid. I removed the helmet to Sniper's helmet. He was fairly old, about fifty or sixty. I checked his pulse.

Still alive. Good. There was the standard hiss as the assimilation tubes emerged, and stabbed him in the neck. That done, I got up and took a moment to let the last of the adrenaline seethe away. He was done with, now if only the drones could-

For the first time, I noticed that the gunfire had stopped. I stepped over to the railing and looked down to the roof of city hall. 19 drones were looking up at me. Hah! We'd done it! The last of the colonists were assimilated! I took a second to enjoy a job well done, and that I'd survived. Then, I decided it was time to wrap things up.

 **[Fire-teams 01 and 02, go and delete all the evidence you can find of us being here from the colony's computers. The rest of you aid them and collect any useful materials. Make sure you get this bastards rifle.]** I ordered, gesturing over to Snipey. Though they couldn't see him, they got the message. **[Can someone in the shuttle get it over here?]** I asked. **[Data, please land the ship at the spaceport.]** I said.

* * *

Finally, after about two hours, everything was ready. Every trace of us had been removed from the colony's computers, all the assimilated equipment had been loaded in the ship or destroyed, and we had a decent-sized armory. There had been a problem though. An hour before we'd finished, I and some of the older drones had begun to...deactivate. We'd started to run out of energy.

We jury rigged something similar to the original Borgs alcoves with some wiring connected to the generator on the ship. Due to limited availability, we had to implement a rotation system. Whenever a drone was finished, they would unplug and another drone would plug-in. I sat in the pilot's seat of the ship, a wire connected to my back.

 **[Data, can you scan the codex for a planet?]** I asked. **[Of course,]** She replied. Since I didn't remember the name of the planet, I told her general characteristics. That it was a garden world, that an alliance ship had gone missing on it, the name of the ship's captain, etc. After a moment she replied. **[There is a planet matching that description.]**

 **[Please pilot the ship there. I believe this thing has an hyperdrive, so use that.]** I said. **[Orders confirmed.]** She replied. As the ship began to move, I took a moment to think before I activated "sleep mode."

 _I wonder how much what I'm about to do will affect the plot of ME2?_

* * *

Instead of waking back up in the ship, I found myself laying on the ground, surrounded by people wearing what looked suspiciously like the armor of the colonists I had assimilated. Then I noticed that the various bits of metal that had been attached to me since I woke up in the Mass Effect universe had vanished. I was entirely flesh and blood again.

"Well, this isn't what I expected to wake up to." I said.


	6. Chapter 6

I took another moment to scan my surroundings. The ground consisted of something that looked like dirt, I could see a lot of trees through the bodies of the colonists surrounding me, and a mountain loomed over all of us. So, definitely not on Gilead. I doubted we had arrived at the planet either. Data would be unlikely at best to allow me to just be carted off the ship once we had arrived, especially given what the inhabitants would be like.

I decided that it would probably be best to ask the maybe-colonists what was up.

"So, any of you know where we are?" I asked.

"You bastard!" They cried out, and tried to attack me on the ground. Fortunately for me, where they tried to, their hands and feet passed harmlessly through my body. So, some sort of dreamworld? I certainly don't remember being intangible before, and it would have been useful when Snipey was kicking my ass.

After a few moments, seeing that physical reprisal was not an option, they stopped trying to hurt me. I stood up and began looking around. We were in the middle of a large clearing. There were definitely a lot of tree's around, but they weren't everywhere, like a jungle. It was more like a forest, with light shining down through the spaces between the trees to illuminate the grass below.

I looked over to the maybe-colonists who were discussing something amongst themselves, and saw that there were eight of them, the same amount of drones that were recharging. Some sort of collective-wide virtual reality? It seems to only affect those "recharging". I thought. I walked over to the colonists, who stopped talking when they saw me approach.

"So, who wants to go investigate?" I asked cheerfully.

They looked around at each other, seemingly stunned. One of them, wearing dark blue armor, stepped forward. "You're not our boss." They said. Judging by the voice, they were a woman. "Alright." I said simply. The colonists looked around at each other again. "You're...fine with that?" Blue said.

"While we're in here, I don't what you do. Call yourself the Kingdom of the Lollipop guild for all I could care. Out there, in the real world? I'm truly sorry for what I did to you, but I expect you to work and do what I tell you, because if you don't, everybody in the galaxy is five different kinds of dead, and I'm the better alternative to what's coming." I said.

Before she could say anything else, I continued. "Now, do any of you want to see what's up with this dreamworld? Hands up if you do." I said. There were a few seconds where nobody dared to move, and then, one by one, most of the colonists raised their hands, including Blue. The ones who didn't walked off, making various sounds of disgust. "Great!" I said smiling.

"Now," I began, "My current theory, is that this is some sort of virtual reality construct hosted by the Collective." I said. "Collective?" One of the colonists asked. "The network we communicated with outside." I replied. The colonist let out a small "Ah" of acknowledgment, and became silent, and another colonist spoke up. "What makes you think we're in this "virtual reality construct"?

"A couple reasons." I began. "First, my seeming intangibility. As the, uh, 'administrator' of the Collective, it would make sense if I would be unable to be harmed in a construct hosted by it. The second, is the environment." I gestured at the forest around us. "I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be the area I used to live in, and, again, as the administrator of the collective, it would make sense for this place to be used for some virtual reality hosted by it."

They took this in for a few moments. "Used to live in?" A colonist asked. "Yeah, I recognize the mountain. I used to live on one of the slopes." I said. The colonist was obviously unhappy that I did not answer the question to the extent he would've liked, but let it go. "How would we test this theory of yours?" One of the colonists asked.

Hmm. That is a good question. Ah, I've got an idea. I held out one hand, palm up, and said "Coffee mug." A coffee mug materialized in the air, and fell onto my palm. I looked inside the cup. Nothing. "Water?" I asked. Some water appeared in the mug. I took a sip. Cold, but not too cold. Perfect.

The colonists took this in in silence for a moment. I could see some making the same movements I had, but nothing happened. "Well, guess that answers that." One of them finally said in exasperation. "Can you create anything else?" Blue asked, speaking up for the first time in a while. "Let's see, shall we?" I said after another sip of water. "Hold this, will you?" I asked a colonist, handing him the mug of water. "You all might want to move back a few feet, just in case." I said.

They obliged me. I held out my hand. "Axe!" I shouted. A small axe, like you would use to chop logs into firewood, appeared in my hand. I gave it a few swings, then stuck it in a tree. I decided to do something a little more complicated for my next trick. Turning in the opposite direction of the colonists, I closed my eyes, imagined my old log cabin in my head, and concentrated heavily upon it. I snapped my fingers, and opened my eyes.

Sure enough, the cabin had appeared. It was a two story building, with a large porch with an wooden swing attached to chains connected to the ceiling. I walked up the stairs connected to the porch, grabbed the doorknob, and turned it. Nothing happened. Huh? What the….Oh right, the key. With a thought, the key appeared in my hand.

I inserted it into the keyhole underneath the knob, and turned it. With a click, the door unlocked. I turned the knob, opened the door, and stepped into the cabin. You might think only a day without having seen the place would be too short a time to develop some nostalgia, but I certainly felt it when I stepped inside.

I closed the door behind me and took a good look around. The first floor consisted of the living room and a small kitchen. The living room took up most of the floors one-hundred feet, with the kitchen taking up the last fifteen. A stairway to upstairs was hidden behind a door in the back of the kitchen.

The living room consisted of a small leather couch, an yellow and green patterned rug, a coffee table, and the television system. It rested on a wood stand which contained a cable box, along with a few cases for video games. Near the stand sat various consoles, the Playstations 3 and 4, Xbox 360, etc; The playstation 4 controller I used for both systems was on the table, but the XBOX controller was nowhere to be seen. I was always losing that thing. A door in one corner lead to a small closet containing the things that hadn't been unboxed in the move, along with a rifle I used for hunting.

As I turned toward the kitchen, I heard someone trying to open the door. Their efforts were seemingly in vain, because they turned to pounding on the door. I did not remember locking the door behind me. _Some passive effect of my wanting to be alone for the moment preventing them from opening the door?_ I wondered.

The kitchen was an unimpressive affair. A refrigerator sat in one corner, between two cabinets. A stove was stuffed into another corner. On top of one of the cabinets was the microwave and an unused coffeepot. I decided to investigate those later, and headed toward the stairway door, set into the wall near the stove.

I opened it, and walked up the stairway. Another door, which I opened, connected directly to the bedroom. It was sparsely furnished, holding only a dresser upon which another TV rested, a desk with a combined server and monitor, the bed, and a few shelves containing books. A second door in the far wall led to a balcony outside that made up the roof for the porch.

This I walked towards to, and opened. I stepped out onto the balcony, the fresh forest air bringing a smile to my face. The balcony contained only a wooden rocking chair, for when I wanted to relax and read a book. I walked over to the railing that overlooked the front of the porch and looked down. The colonists were standing around, some hidden out of view below the balcony.

"Didn't I ask you not to follow me!?" I shouted, leaning on the railing. The colonists heads snapped up to look at me. Blue walked out from under the balcony and turned her head up to look at me. "We were concerned about you!" She shouted back. "Sure you were! What happened to my drink!?" I asked. "It fell!" The colonist I'd handed it off to said. Probably smirking under that helmet the bastard.

"Shame, that." I said as a took a sip from the mug full of water that had appeared in my hand. Disregarding the probably stunned look on the colonists face, Blue asked, "So, do you think you could summon another cabin?" I was silent for a moment. "Why don't you make one yourself? There's one decent axe down there, and you're smart people. You could make more. That way, you wouldn't have to be indebted to me, or whatever." I finally said.

"One would think you'd like for such a thing." She said. "Like I said before, I could care less about what you do in here. I've got my cabin back, a good drink, and just a room away are some books I'd like to get back to reading before we get yanked out of here." I stated. "'Get yanked out of here? You think we'll be leaving then?" She asked.

"The last thing we all remember before waking up here is going to "sleep", right?" I asked. The colonists nodded their heads. "Then naturally it follows that once we've recharged and are disconnected from the cords we'll wake back up in the ship." I said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got an unfinished book I want to get back to." I said, and turned towards the door. Halfway there, an idea struck me.

I ran back over to the railing and shouted to the colonists below. "Changed my mind! If you guys will help me with one last experiment, I'll create another cabin for you!" The colonists talked this over amongst themselves for a little bit. "It's a deal!" Blue finally shouted back. I imagined myself standing in front of the front door in the living room, and I appeared in the living room.

I opened the door in front of me, and stepped out onto the porch. I walked over to the swing and sat down. The colonists gathered around as I spoke. "So, shall we perform the experiment first?" The colonists turned towards Blue, who was silent for a moment. "Can we trust you?" She asked. "Funny you should be asking that." I said. "After I plainly told you not to follow me, you still tried to get inside the cabin. Not to mention jackass over there," I gestured to the colonist in question. ", who probably deliberately spilt my drink." I finished, taking a sip from my coffee mug as I did.

"You have no proof." The colonist protested. "Yeah yeah, whatever." I said, taking a drink from the mug. "Fine, we'll do the experiment first." Blue said. "Great. I want one of you to punch somebody." I said. The colonists turned to looked at me. "I suppose you don't have to actually punch them. Just do something to cause physical harm, like pinch them or something. Punching would be easier to observe the results of though." I said.

"What, exactly, is the goal of this experiment?" Blue asked. "I want to give others the benefit of my inability to be harmed." I said. She was silent for a few moments. "Why?" She finally asked. "The more people there are assimilated, the likelier it is that some psychopath will be among them. I'd like to prevent them from being a problem." I said.

"...Alright then." She said. "Alrighty then. Do we have any volunteers?" I asked. Nobody moved for a few moments, then two colonists raised their hands. "Fantastic. Get up here in front of the class, will you?" They obliged me. _No one shall be able to physically harm each other._ I thought. I didn't expand it to include emotional harm, because that would come a little too close to taking the last thing that was theirs away from them. Better to have them think they have something they can come back to, if they ever somehow leave the Collective. "Now, kick each other."

They attempted to, only for their feet to harmlessly pass through each others legs. "Alright, now try to punch each other." Again, no harm came to either of them. "Now, to make sure it's not just them, can I have a couple more volunteers?" I asked. A few more colonists raised their hands. I picked two, and asked them to repeat what the other two did. They were unable to physically harm each other either.

"Alright, that experiment seems to be a success! Now, I'm going to fulfill my part of the bargain." I said, taking a drink from my coffee mug. I sat it down on the banister of one of the railings surrounding the porch, and walked onto the grass surrounding the cabin. I closed my eyes and imagined a long, low bunkhouse structure with enough beds to fit twice the number of people currently around and some tables to seat them.

I opened my eyes to see that the bunkhouse had appeared, though it was lacking a door. ...Fuck it, I gave them a functioning shelter. If they want anything fancier they can make it themselves, like the colonists of old. I stepped inside to make sure all the furniture was there, and upon confirming that it was, stepped out.

"There, I complet-"

* * *

"-ed my….Well, that was a rude awakening."

I was back on the ship. The drone who had just unplugged me walked off into the back of the ship, presumably to begin recharging their-self.

 **[Data, have we arrived at the planet?]** I asked.

 **[Yes, several hours ago.]** She replied.

[What!? Why didn't you wake me sooner!?] I asked, bolting out of the pilots seat.

 **[It was felt that you would appreciate being recharged fully so you could operate longer.]** She said.

 **[...Alright, you've got me there, but still, if this collective, and the galaxy, is to survive, I need to be aware of what's happening at all times.]** I stated.

 **[Apologies. Next time you are in Unimatrix 0, I will keep you informed.]** She said.

 **[Unimatrix Zero? Is that what that virtual reality was called?]** I asked. Hmm. Wonder what the people currently in there are thinking?

 **[Yes. It's a previously undocumented cyberworld hosted by the Collective. From what has been observed, it connects to any life-form assimilated by an "infected" drone.]** She said, sounding strangely...excited?

 **[Hah, guess that would make me Patient Zero for this collective, wouldn't it? Anyway, onto business then. Scan the planet for a crashed ship.]** I said.

 **[Already done.]** She said, and the image of a ship appeared in my mind. Across the bow, the words MSV Hugo Gernsback had been painted. Hmm, is that what they do for ships in the space age? Paint the name across it?

 **[Take us as close to it as you can, Data.]** I said, turning to walk into the cargo bay.

Have to get the drones ready in time to meet the locals.

* * *

 **AN:** So, did I do a good job at portraying the conflict between the colonists and the SI? Any edits needed? Please review and let me know.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN**

 **Blaze1992: 1. The SI is an equal opportunity assimilator.**

 **2\. Yes, most likely.**

 **3\. Simple. The SI has all of 25 drones to his name. Even a small sized pirate or mercenary band is likely to have at least twice that. The criminals of the Terminus system are absurdly powerful. I was reading on the ME wiki about a band of mercenaries who robbed ships by luring them in with a distress signal, and this was on a heavily populated planet. Hell, the Blue Suns actually own a planet.**

 **Silencewillfall009: Thanks, I hope this chapter and the rest of the story will be just as funny for you.**

 **As always, please review and criticize.**

* * *

Before I had gone to "sleep", I had left an order for the drones to modify themselves to fit their classification. I'd also looked into this classification business while we were leaving the colony, because I did not remember that from any of the series that I'd watched. Though, to be fair, my memory is a bit shit, and I'd only ever watched TNG in any detail.

Basically, drones were classified into six categories: Labor, Transport, Maintenance, Tactical, Assimilation, and "Medical". Labor drones were exactly what they sounded like, lug-heads who do most of the work at any given ship or installation, and had no special enhancements to aid in this.

Transport drones moved objects, such as lifeforms awaiting assimilation, and cargo to their destination. They typically equipped themselves with backpacks to carry things that were too unwieldy to carry by hand.

Maintenance drones performed repairs on Borg structures and vessels, and assisted in the conversion of assimilated structures and ships. They usually had at least one arm replaced with a heavily mechanized one containing various tools to aid them in this task.

Tactical drones were for when a species proved too tough for conventional drones to handle the assimilation of, and would not hesitate to use lethal force if the situation called for it. Back when we had the technology, one arm would usually be replaced with a heavy disruptor, and an armature containing an energy weapon would be mounted on a shoulder. They were also more heavily armored than most drones.

Assimilation drones did exactly that. They performed the work that the nanomachines couldn't, and when not in an area designed for the task, were out performing "field-work", typically guarded by a force of drones. To aid them, their arms were replaced with heavily mechanised ones containing tools for surgery and diagnostics.

Medical drones repaired drones when they could be repaired, and dismantled them when they could not. They could also use their knowledge to heal lifeforms if they were injured before assimilation. One arm was replaced with a mechanized one containing the tools they needed for their job.

I had, using the knowledge of the collective, fully converted one drone into an assimilation drone, to continue the work while I was recharging, and converted another into a medical drone, to see to Snipey's probable broken ribs and arms. During the time I was recharging, another five drones had been converted using the materials on board, including two tactical drones, which I planned to bring down to the surface with me.

Due to a lack of disrupters and energy weapons, their arms had instead been replaced by projectile weapons, and the shoulder armature was forgone entirely to save resources. I inspected the other fully converted drones, one assimilation and two maintenance, for a while, before my attention was captured by the rings I had noticed what felt like years ago.

 **[Data, is there anything from the ship's logs that says what these rings are?]** I asked my robotic assistant. She took only a split second to respond.

 **[It appears to be a sort of point to point transporter.]**

 _...Hahahaha. God, when did my life become so fucked up that this shit no longer surprises me?_

 **[Do we have the materials to make another one?]** I asked.

 **[We do have enough materials, but we lack sufficient quantities of the element, Naquadah, used to power it.]** She replied.

Hmm.

 **[Can you detect any traces of this element on the planet below, or would we have to build a dedicated installation for it?]** I asked.

 **[We would indeed have to build a sensor installation, though according to files on the ship, the element is extremely rare.]** She replied.

 **[Oh well. Have we arrived at our destination, yet?]** I inquired.

 **[We've actually just arrived.]** She replied.

 **[Excellent!]** I said, grabbing my chosen weapon, the sniper rifle that had been taken from the sniper. It was the Volkov X, manufactured by Rosenkov Materials, more commonly known for their armor then their weapons. Despite this, it was an extremely powerful weapon, as proven by it's ability to come within an inch of destroying a window tempered to withstand micro-meteorites.

The ten drones I had picked to come with me on this excursion silently walked into the cockpit. There were the two tactical drones, one of the converted maintenance drones, six labor drones, and the converted medic drone. I opened the cockpit door that would lead onto the planet one Ronald Taylor had turned into his personal little kingdom, and was hit by the sound of waves crashing onto a shore. It was early morning out, so with any luck we could be done before anything woke up.

The ship was a little too large to attempt to land right next to the wreck of the Gernsback, so we had landed twelve meters away to be safe. The wreck of the ship could still be seen from where we were. It was massive, easily the size of a three or four story building, and the parts above water had enough space that fifty people could live comfortably inside. Hmm. Wonder why the exiles didn't turn it into their camp?

We marched towards the wreck, hoping to complete the objective of our little mission before Taylor could do something stupid. We made it in good time, only thirty minutes passed before we arrived. I injected the machine containing the beacon VI with nanomachines. With that done, we ventured across the bridge and into the ship, leaving a drone outside to guard the entrance.

The layout was a bit different from what I remembered from the game. From the entrance there were a few branching hallways that more often than not led to rooms submerged in water. There were a few rooms not submerged, but they didn't really contain anything of interest, There were armories that had been emptied of anything that even looked slightly like a weapon, what looked like supply rooms that had been similarly stripped of their contents, and med-bays that did contain some supplies which we gladly took.

We did find the little hallway from the game, which contained only some logs. I listened on as the the ship's doctor fretted over her degrading memory.

 **[Data, would the crew of this ship be able to recover if they were removed from the planet?]** I asked.

 **[Without assimilation? Unlikely. Files from the beacon indicate that the effects from consuming the flora of this planet are cumulative. After eight years of eating nothing but the flora, the neural decay has likely progressed far enough to render the effects permanent.]** She stated.

 **[Without assimilation? So conversion into a drone would heal them?]** I inquired.

 **[We would require a survivor to study the spread and depth of the decay, but the nanomachines and cybernetics conveyed by assimilation would likely be able to reverse it, yes.]** She replied.

Before I could reply, we were interrupted.

 **[Hostile lifeforms firing on my position.]** The drone at the entrance reported. We hurriedly walked through the hallways of the ship towards the entrance, the sound of gunshots getting louder as we did so. Soon, we had reached the entrance. We could see through the open doorway as a shell arced over the crates the drone was using as cover, and crash into his unshielded body.

Have you ever seen the upper torso of a man explode into chunks of meat and blood, with some blackened bits of metal as a bonus? No? Neither had I, until that moment. The sight caused enough disgust to almost overcome my emotion inhibitors, which I had still not yet deactivated. It was still enough to make me step back a couple times, allowing the Tactical drones to step through the entrance.

I watched the two calmly walk through the hail of gunfire, their shields absorbing the bullets without fail. The gunfire seemed to be originating from the jungle surrounding the beach. Their guns began to fire, and screams of pain emanated from the jungle. No shot seemed to be wasted. For every bullet they fired, a scream ensued from the verdant jungle. Soon, the gunfire from the jungle tapered off, and then stopped entirely.

Just when we thought it was over, we heard a whistling sound. We looked up to see three shells arcing out of the forest and towards one of the tactical drones. They collided with its shield, which could only have withstood one such shell, near-simultaneously. The drone vanished in a ball of flame and fury, and the other tactical drone was knocked over the side of the bridge into the water.

We watched as the pyre quickly vanished, it's rage spent. There was little remaining of the tactical drone, just burning scraps of metal. After a few minutes passed without another attack, we realized that the survivors had run off.

I walked towards the middle of the bridge and looked over the railing. The tactical drone was swimming through the water, making its way towards the beach. I followed it's lead and walked towards the end of the bridge. As I stepped on dry land, I surveyed the destruction that had been wrought. My eyes fell on the remains of the labor drone.

 **[Go into the jungle and assimilate any wounded you find.]** I spoke across the Collective. The drones followed my order. I merely continued staring at the remains of the destroyed drone, the familiar fire of my anger kindling into life despite the inhibitors best efforts.


	8. Chapter 8

It had been about two hours since the insane crew - The Hunters, they were apparently called - had attacked us. We'd turned the crashed ship into our home base on the planet, which Data had dubbed Unimatrix 01, and drones were busily turning it into a more defensible position with materials we had scavenged from the utterly wrecked rooms of the ship. I was currently pacing in an empty room, my anger still burning eagerly. I could hear the whirring of surgical machinery as the assimilator drone went about his business converting the ten wounded Hunters the drones had found. The sound almost brought a smile to my face.

There had been more but, judging by the trails leading off into the forest, they'd either been dragged off by their comrades, or by the fauna of this planet looking for a snack. The memories of the Hunters that had been assimilated were not exactly clear on that, too focused on dealing with their own pain. It didn't matter. They'd show up sooner or later.

 _...No. Fuck that. Fuck waiting for them to show up again and blow another couple of my people up. But we probably don't have the numbers to take them in an head on assault. Hmm._

 **[Data, can you scan the planet for power signatures? They would probably be moving in our direction.]** I asked.

 **[Sensors report twenty such signatures currently moving towards your position, including a rather large one. They're separated into two groups, with the larger signature in the group furthest away.]** She reported.

 _Hmm. That YMIR Mech? Taylor must be desperate to send his one big gun at us. ...Or he has more than one. Wouldn't be the first thing that's been different._ I thought to myself.

 **[Can you create a map of the region and overlay the locations of the power signatures?]** I inquired.

 **[Simplicity itself.]** She replied, and the image of the map appeared in my head.

 **[Thanks Data.]** I said. I exited my room and began moving through the hallways. I grouped five drones under the designation Fireteam 02, had them grab some grenades from an armory on board, and asked them to meet me at the entrance. Every other drone on the planet became Fireteam 01 and were tasked with defending Unimatrix 01 with whatever means they deemed necessary.

On the way there, I checked my weapons to make sure nothing had changed since I'd last looked at them. By the time I arrived at the entrance, the other drones were already there. The majority of them were labor drones, with a medic drone thrown in to help fix us up if something went wrong.

 **[Alright, Fireteam 02. The objective for the mission we are about to embark on is the capture and assimilation of enemy mechs to employ against the Hunters.]** I said.

 **[Files indicate that these "mechs" are very fragile.]** Data remarked as we exited the crashed ship. Huh, is this the first time she's joined one of these planning sessions on her own agency?

 **[Oh yes, quite fragile, but they're disposable metalshields that can move and shoot at the same time, and that's something we're sorely lacking in. Besides, their fragility is something that can be fixed at a later date.]** I said as we continued to walk.

* * *

Hidden in the foliage beyond the range of their sensors, we watched about 10 white and black mechs march towards the crashed ship. I had ordered three of the drones to hide in the foliage opposite us, so we could flank the mechs. **[Now.]** I signaled. We threw the EMP grenades we had been holding into the middle of the mech column. The grenades exploded, temporarily disabling the robots.

Drones rushed over to the droids while they were incapacitated, stabbed them directly in the 'face' with their assimilation tubes, and moved on to the next mech. Soon, all the mechs had been assimilated, and stood before my small group of drones. The red rings on their face monitors, which indicated they were hostile, had turned green, but that seemed to have been the only change.

 **[Data, can you take control of these mechs and coordinate their efforts against the Hunters?]** I requested of my robotic assistant.

 **[Of course.]** She said, and the mechs immediately began moving, presumably to attack one of the Hunter outposts whose location we had acquired. **[Do be careful, please. We are here to help these people after all.]** I said. There was a split-second where the mechs paused, and then they continued on their way. **[Yes sir.]** She replied.

I turned to my drones. **[Let's go have a shot at that other group, shall we?]** I asked.

* * *

The other group of mechs were just as susceptible to EMP grenades as the other, though the YMIR required a couple more. **[Data, we have that other group of mechs for you.]** I told her.

 **[Assuming direct control.]** She replied. I was stupefied for a second.

 **[Data, was that a joke?]** I asked.

 **[Yes.]** She replied.

...She seems to be getting more...intelligent lately. Gonna have to ask her what's up with that after we've dealt with the Hunters and Taylor.

 **[ I do have a minor request, though.]** She said.

 **[Of course, what do you need?]** I stated.

 **[I've had to delegate some mechs to watching prisoners captured from Hunter outposts. If you could either come assimilate them or take them back to Unimatrix 01, that would free up the mechs for other operations.]** She replied.

 **[Sure, I was planning to head back to homebase anyways.]** I said.

 **[Thank you. I'll send you a map to the prisoner's location.]** She said. The map appeared in our heads, and we began marching towards our destination.

 **[You might like to know that we've been able to determine that assimilation would be able to help the colonists recover.]** Data said as we walked.

 **[Oh?]** I asked.

 **[During assimilation, if the nanomachines were to form into the shape of some of the missing pathways in their brain, they should begin to recover. It is extremely unlikely they would ever recover their memories, however.]** She said.

 **[Alright, thanks for keeping me up to date Data.]** I said, contemplating this information.

After a couple hours of walking through the hot jungle, we entered the small valley the prisoners were being held in. As we walked down the hill leading into the center of the valley, we could see the prisoners, about six of them, all sitting perfectly still. There was, however, no sign of the mechs. I mentally commanded the drones to get ready in case of an ambush.

"Hello boys, you having a fun time?" I asked as we approached them, a smile stretched across my face. The one closest to me attempted to spit at me, but found himself unable to due to a critical case of cyborg-foot-in-his-jaw syndrome. Awful disease, we lose people to it every year.

"Now, I asked you a question. Please, answer it politely." I said after I removed my foot from his jaw, smile still painted across my face. He spat out a few bloody teeth, and remained obstinately silent, eyes glaring at me. _That's what happens when I let my anger get the better of me, I suppose._ I thought to myself. One of his comrades however, was not as quiet. "Like we would tell you anything, agents of the Deceiver!" The Hunter shouted.

I was silent for a moment. "Do I really look like one of Taylor's cronies to you?" I asked. "His guardians travel with you!" Another Hunter shouted. "You mean the mechs? We reprogrammed them. Speaking of the mechs, why didn't you run away? There aren't any in the area." I said. They didn't answer me.

I sighed. "Oh well then. Maybe you'll be more inclined to answer questions after we've healed the neural decay." I said. The Hunters sported puzzled looks. Probably didn't understand the last bit of that sentence, the poor bastards.

 **[Each of you grab a prisoner.]** I ordered the drones as I picked up the one whose teeth I had knocked out with one hand and slung him over my shoulder. The other drones followed suit, grabbing the now struggling prisoners and beginning to march off. After another hour or so of walking, we managed to get to HQ.

 **[Take these prisoners for assimilation.]** I ordered some nearby drones. As the struggling prisoners were lead off to their fate, I and my drones walked into a nearby room where some chemistry equipment had been set up. Using files in the database, and with advice from some drones, I got to work constructing an upgrade for the grenades.

After half an hour, Data contacted me with a status update.

 **[Sir, the Hunters have all been pushed back to their central compound.]** She said.

 **[Alright, thanks for informing me Data. Try to keep any of them from escaping into the jungle until we get there. We're in no position to try and hunt them down in there.]** I said as I examined the newly finished upgrade.

 **[Understood.]** She said.

After a minute, I uploaded the data for the upgrade to the collective and had the drones on Fireteam 02 produce new grenades with the applied upgrade. When everyone had the new grenades, I sent a message to the fireteam and walked back out into the hallway. My drones following me as I did.

 **[Come on boys and girls, it's time to finish off the Hunters.]** I said.

* * *

AN: If you spot an error, or have some criticism, please leave a review and I'll do my best to fix it.


	9. Chapter 9

We marched through the sweltering jungle, some piece of equipment in our cybernetic bodies regulating our body's temperature to keep us cool. We had gotten the location of the Hunters compound - a collection of wood huts around a small pond in a large clearcut section of jungle - from the memories of the Hunters we had first assimilated, but we had lacked the numbers to take them.

Now, with our upgraded grenades and the mechs, most importantly the YMIR, even my small five-drone team could roll over them. At least, as long as we got there before they did something stupid, like try and break through the mechs. Luckily for them, and us, that would not seem to been happening today. We could see the compound over the crest of the hill we were crossing.

We increased our pace, and soon we were naught but a few dozen meters from the Hunters compound. A mech materialized out of the jungle, it's footsteps somehow barely making a sound across the branch strewn ground.

 **[No Hunters have been seen escaping the compound.]** Data's voice emanated from the Mech. Hmm, did she rewire the mechs voice box?

 **[Great.]** I said.

 **[On my mark, throw your grenades.]** I told the drones, grabbing a grenade from my waist. The drones followed suit.

 **[Now.]** I said as I pressed the button to activate the grenades timer. The grenades, almost a dozen, sailed from our hands and through the air, coming to their final destinations within the compound. The Hunters let out cries as they realized they were under attack. Gunfire began to emanate from within the compound, bullets striking into the forest, a lucky few striking a metal limb or two.

It wouldn't change anything. Within moments, the timers for the grenades went off. There was an hissing sound, audible to us even dozens of meters away. We watched as gas began to float above the huts of the compound, and cries started to emanate from within. Looks like the upgrades were working successfully.

The inspiration for my grenades new trick was tear gas. I had heard of it before I ventured across dimensions, of course, but I didn't know how to make it. I resorted to making the next best thing. Using files in the database, and with some processing power from some drones, I had created the best equivalent I could. The gas stimulated the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye, along with dozens, hundreds, of nerves across the body.

The end result was somebody writhing on the ground, their body feeling like it was on fire while they cried their eyes out. It was utterly non-lethal, utterly incapacitating, and utterly painful. _No one hurts my people and gets away with it._ I thought to myself.

 **[Wait one minute, then go down and capture them all. Bring them back to the ship for assimilation.]** I told Data, turning and walking off into the forest as I did. I felt my rage beginning to die down, and my emotion inhibitors regained control.

 **[Yes, sir.]** She replied. As we marched into the jungle again, we heard the sound of metal feet marching across the ground. _Now, with the hunters seemingly finished, the only things left to deal with are 'Captain' Taylor, and the women's camp. Which should I go for first? ...Let's go with the camp._ I decided.

We began marching towards the camp. According to the assimilated knowledge of the Hunters, the camp was a little over a mile north-east of the wreck of the Gernsback, and about the same distance to the west of the Hunters compound. It was situated within the middle of a hollowed out mountain, with only two entrances.

One lead directly to Taylors camp, and the other was to a path connected to the beach the ship was wrecked on. This was the one we headed towards, because we didn't want to run into whatever mechs Taylor had left. We could take them, of course, but I had an idea for when we got to the female camp.

Soon, we had reached the entrance to the camp. Through the hole that had been carved into the wall long ago by some river, I watched as the people Taylor had turned into helpless slaves wandered around. Now, let's see if we can resolve this peacefully and without harming anybody, shall we?

I slowly walked forward and through the entrance to the camp, my metal feet clanking across the stone floor. The women closst to me turned at the sound, instantly becoming shocked at the sight of what had to be their rescuer! Or, you know, my appearance, that is also a possibility.

"Monster!" One of the women shouted. Before they could go around and grab their torches and pitchforks, I held my hands up in the air, palms outwards.

"Wait! We mean you no harm!" I shouted, keeping my hands away from anything that would seem like a weapon. The former crewmen looked around at each other in silence for a moment. Then, one who resembled what I remembered of the doctor from the mission in the game stepped forward.

"What are you? Are you agents of the Deceiver!?" She asked.

"No, we were passing along in our ship, when our sensors detected the wreckage. We learned what happened here from the VI, and we think we've found a way to help you. ...I will say that you probably won't like the consequences much." I said. The former doctor stepped back into the small crowd who conversed amongst themselves. Finally, the doctor stepped forward again.

"How are we to trust you? Minions of the deceiver would obviously lie." She said. I pretended to take several moments to think of a way to convince them, but I'd already had an idea.

"I know! I'll go capture the "Deceiver", and bring him here for you to do whatever you want with him. Will that convince you to trust me?" I asked.

Again she returned to the small crowd, where they conversed amongst each other for several seconds. When they were finished, she stepped forward again.

"That would be acceptable." She said.

"Great!" I said, planting a false smile across my face. Heh. Judging by that look on her face, it did not appear all that natural.

"The entrance to his camp from here has been blocked by a rockslide. You will have to find your own way in." She said.

"Oh, don't worry about us. We're quite good at getting through problems." I said. I sent the command for my drones to follow me, and we began to start moving through the camp. Before we did though, I paused and said. "You should know that, even if we do heal you, you are unlikely to regain your memories." With that said and her left to contemplate it, we resumed moving. As we walked through, I inspected the camp and it's inhabitants. Many of the women were sitting around in small, dirty tents, clutching their heads and weeping in despair.

Others were wandering around, dazed. Many of those didn't seem to recognize where they were. As we passed one tent, I stopped in shock at what I had barely seen in it's dark recesses. There were _children_ inside. _Taylor, you complete and utter bastard. ...No. He's not the only one to blame. The other officers were also at fault for going along with this shit._

 _How old would the oldest be? Nine, ten years?_ I increased my pace, eager to get through that rockslide so I could wrap my hands around Taylor's throat- _No. Calm down. You promised to give him to the women to inflict whatever punishment they have in mind on him._ Despite my best efforts, I could still feel my anger rising. Soon, we had arrived at the rockslide.

A disabled mech was laid against the barricade, a hole in the side of its 'head' indicating where some lucky Hunter had probably done the job. I bent down and peeled open its chest casing, exposing its wiring and mechanical organs to the world. Using the brainpower of some drones and blueprints collected by the nanomachines in the assimilated mechs, I rigged it to blow up with sufficient force to destroy the rockslide.

We quickly evacuated the area, and waited for the explosion. Soon, within about ten seconds, we heard a massive boom. We moved into the area, which was now filled with slowly settling dust clouds. The rockslide had been blown to smithereens, leaving a clear path towards Taylor. We began marching forwards.

"Hope you had a blast ruling this demented kingdom of yours Taylor!" I shouted. As we advanced, we began hearing the footsteps of many metallic feet. As we walked over the crest of a small hill, we saw the mechs, about twenty of them. Behind the crowd of mechs, I spotted an African man in a red uniform messing with an omni-tool.

 **[Fire!]** I commanded my drones. The mechs, without the governance of an AI like Data, were incompetent at best at tactics. They marched towards us, not even trying to duck behind cover. Thus, when my six drones began firing, they were quickly ripped apart. We'd managed to cut down all but six when I saw Taylor glance up with a panicked look across his face, and press a button on his omni-tool.

A loud stomping noise emanated from the jungle to our east, and a YMIR mech emerged into the clearing we were in. My drones had managed to cut down the remaining mechs by this point, and so were free to turn their fire on the YMIR. If the YMIR was affected, it didn't show it. It's left arm opened up, and a rocket fired out of the arm.

 **[Duck!]** I shouted across the Collective. My drones followed my instructions, and hid behind the sturdiest piece of cover they could find. The rocket exploded harmlessly against a rock a drone was hiding behind. _Gah, these rifles aren't doing shit against that mech, and the longer it takes to destroy it, the longer Taylor has to figure out a way to weasel out of this mess. I need to do something._ Before the mech could fire again, I hopped over a crate I was hiding behind and charged forward.

The mechs right arm opened fire, bullets spraying the dirt around me. _Have to get rid of some weight._ I threw my rifle to the side and flicked my hand. The clawed gauntlet formed around my arm and hand as I took a running leap. The mechs bullets bounced harmlessly off my shield, and I slammed into the chestpiece of the mech.

Three hundred or so pounds of metal and meat impacting it at high speeds was enough to send the mech staggering backwards, giving me plenty of time to hack at it's chestpiece with the gauntlet. Soon, I had managed to create a small breach in it's armor, which I was able to expand by pulling at pieces until they broke off. I deactivated the omni-tool, and activated my assimilation tubes to replace it.

The tubes shot into the wiring of the mech, delivering the nanomachines inside. Before I could celebrate this victory, something slammed into my right side, and I was sent flying. I fell onto the dirt a good three meters away from the YMIR, whose cannon arm had been the thing that slammed into me like a speeding car.

I looked up, expecting an exploding shell to turn me into a bunch of mechanical giblets, but the only movement the mech made was a small mechanical shudder. The rings on it's face monitor turned from red to green. I stood up, only to hear a sort of ripping sound. I looked to my right side, only to see my mechanical arm fall off. Huh. I thought.

I picked it up from the ground, and walked over to where the drones had cornered Taylor, mentally commanding the giant mech to follow me as I did. "T-thank god you rescued me-" He began, only for the clenched fist of my left hand to slam into his face, He collapsed soundlessly, body falling backwards onto the dirt.

I had a drone pick up Taylor's unconscious body and lay it across the YMIR mechs angled arms. I had the drones ransack the camp for anything of use while the mech and I walked to the women's camp. After a minute or so, we arrived at the entrance into the mountain.

The camp descended into hushed whispers as they saw us enter, especially at the sight of the unconscious body of their tyrannical dictator draped across the mechs arms. I walked towards the center of town and stood in front of the creepy idol. I had the mech dump the former first mates body in front of me.

The doctor walked out of the crowd, and stood in front of Taylor's body. I decided to begin the conversation.

"Here lies the unconscious body of your Deceiver, as agreed in the deal." I said. She crouched down and examined the body, grabbed his arm and felt for a pulse in his wrist. When she finished her examination and stood back up.

"Yes, the Deceivers body, and your injury, are more than proof enough of your sincerity to heal us. Would you mind telling us how you would do this?" She asked.

"Of course!" I said. I told the nanomachine in my right arm to activate the assimilation tubes, which slid out with a hiss, shocking the crowd. "These contain millions of tiny little machines which, upon injection into your body, will speed towards your brain and begin healing what that bastard did to you. As I mentioned before, there is one unfortunate drawback." I said.

She was silent for several seconds. "What would that be?" She finally asked.

"All of you would be forced to work for me for the rest of your lives." I said. She became silent again, and I took the chance to survey the crowd. Many wore pensive expressions, obviously unable to decide without knowing more, but they clearly wanted to be healed. Others wore grim but determined expressions whose intent I was unable to decipher. Would they resist with all they had? Would they accept assimilation?

"Why?" The doctor's voice interrupted my thoughts.

"You saw the people I walked in here with, I trust?" I asked. She and several others nodded, those in the crowd informing those who did not know. "That is what would happen to you. The machines I told you about build miniature structures across your body, slowly converting you into something half machine and half organic. In the process, your emotions are blocked off. There are benefits though." I said.

"Oh?" She said, face blank.

"Yes. Whenever you sleep, you visit a sort of dreamworld where you can converse and interact with others like us who are asleep just like you would before you were healed. Another, is that you're in constant contact with everybody else across the Collective. If you ever need help, all you have to do is ask for it and we'll be there to help." I said.

"Collective?" She asked.

"Yes, it's how we communicate." I said.

Silently, she stepped into the crowd who conversed amongst themselves. They continued to talk like this for half an hour, before the Doctor walked out of the crowd again.

"We have yet to reach a decision. If you wouldn't mind, you can go back to your people, and we'll send someone to tell you when we have. Would that work?" She said.

"Yes, that would be fine." I said. "With all that I've told, it would be unreasonable to expect any answer right away. ...Hmm, I've got an idea. Instead of having you send someone all the way to our base, why don't I just station someone outside your camp? Just tell them what you decide, and it will be communicated directly to me." I continued.

She considered this for several seconds. "That is fine." She finally stated. "Great!" I replied. With negotiations with the women's camp done with for now, we departed for Unimatrix 01. As I left, I heard angry yelling behind me as Taylors former harem gathered to enact retribution. _Note-to-self, remember to ask Data for files of whatever they did to him if they agree to assimilation._ At that happy thought, my anger began to subside again.

Half an hour later, and I was finally back in view of the wreck, which had an absolutely amazing backdrop of the sun setting behind it. I was impressed with what the drones had done in the few hours we were gone. There were lots of WIP projects scattered around the beach. Some sort of bio-fuel powered generator had been constructed, and a drone was busily feeding it plants.

Cables ran from it into the ship. Some drones had installed a sliding metal door over the entrance, and four mechs, along with a couple drones of the non-borg kind, were standing in front of it, silently guarding it. They silently moved out of the way as I walked forward, with one mech kindly pulling the door open.

I stepped through, and was happy to see that the drones had hooked up a lighting system at some point. They'd also covered a few of the holes in the ship with canvas and wooden boards. I walked towards my room on the ship, passing a few drones carrying various bits and pieces of metal.

Finally, I arrived at my room. Some kind drone seemed to have installed a door for me. I pulled it open and stepped through. The renovations going on throughout the ship didn't seem to have reached it yet, which I was perfectly fine with. I sat down on the rooms sole bed, which was attached to the wall. I opened my mind to the collective so that I could watch the drones progress, and waited for the message from the women's camp.

A few hours later, and I had just finished watching the drones finish constructing some mining equipment. They'd also constructed some logging machines, to clear out the jungle so we had more room to expand.

 **[Sir, the women's camp have made their decision.]** Data said.

 **[Oh? And what did they decide?]** I asked.

 **[They have agreed to be assimilated.]** She replied.

 **[Grand. Send some drones to assimilate them. Do not assimilate the children.]** I said.

 **[Sir?]** She asked.

 **[Assimilating children would not only be inefficient in the extreme, it would also cause more than a bit of anger if it was ever found out.]** I said.

 _Not to mention I'm more than a little uncomfortable with the idea._

 **[I think the best thing to do would be to sedate them for now.** **When we contact the SA, we can hand them over and explain what happened. Might earn us some political goodwill.** **]** I continued.

 **[Yes, sir.]** She said.

A smile formed on my face. It had cost me two drones, but the Borg Collective now had a proper home from which we could expand. A home we could fortify for when the Reapers came knocking. A home from which we could prepare.

* * *

AN: If you spot an error, or have any criticism, please post about it and I'll do my best to fix it.


	10. Chapter 10

AN: "Density": What do you mean by illogical and snap decisions? Can you provide an example? While you're at it, can you provide one for "wild reactions"?

And? You seem to think the SI would have reacted the same way if he would have arrived in a more inhabited system. Most likely, he would have told the ruling party there that he was fleeing from a great menace who was seeking refuge, and figured something out from there.

If you spot an error, or have any criticism, please leave a review and I'll do my best to fix it.

* * *

It had been four months since we took the planet of Aeia, and already we had expanded significantly. We'd mined and scavenged enough minerals to build a mech factory, which mostly produced LOKI's, whose design, using Borg knowledge and the processing power of some drones, had been updated. For one, they were now capable of using proper tactics without being controlled by Data.

They firewalls had also been upgraded, so now they couldn't be hacked by Joe Random looking to use them as easy allies. Their aiming and ammo preservation protocols had been updated, so now they didn't waste ammo shooting the cover someone's hiding behind. Their frames had been replaced with a stronger alloy, so they could withstand a bit more damage.

In short, they were now in every way the equivalent of a trained soldier. And we were using them to mine and build machinery and buildings. Hah. Waste of skills if ever there was one. Still, even with the added fifty drones assimilating the former crew of the Hugo Gernsback had given us, we needed the mechpower.

We'd constructed an additional three biofuel powered generators just to power all the new machinery that was being built. Thus, a large number of mechs were sent out into the forest to cut down trees to fuel the generators. A larger amount were sent into the mines, where they mined out the ores and minerals they found, and sent them to the refinery.

There, using all the metallurgical knowledge of the Borg and seventy five people hailing from the later years of the 22nd century, the ores were refined to their utmost and sent to the manufactory. There, some of the refined ores and minerals were turned into various tools and pieces of metal to be used in the construction of buildings. The primary export of the manufactory, and what almost all of the materials went into, were weapons.

As many weapons as our resources permitted were produced. Guns rolled off the assembly lines in their hundreds, grenades in their thousands, and torpedo's in their dozens. We were arming ourselves for the coming apocalypse.

It would not be enough.

But there were ways of fixing that. One of the first things we'd built on Aeia was a dedicated sensor station, which had managed to detect not only large amounts of element zero, but trace amounts of naquadah. Data had told me it was extremely reactive to most substances, which I took to mean explosive, so all Naquadah was being stored in a series of carefully maintained vaults beneath the surface of the planet until we had need of it.

The Element Zero, on the other, hand, I had an immediate use and need for. We were going to build a ship. It wouldn't be very large, about the size of a Systems Alliance Frigate, so it easily had enough room to store a dozen mechs, and the cargo bay would be unaffected. This cargo space would be filled with more than a few guns.

When the ship was finished, I planned to go out into the galaxy at large. During the ransack of Taylor's camp, some drones had found datapads belonging to the officers of the Gernsback, which contained enough information, combined with their memories, to allow access to their bank account. With some luck, they wouldn't have been emptied already. I planned to go to Omega first, see if I could maybe sell some of the aforementioned guns to someone.

Then, with the money taken from the deceased officers bank accounts and the money from the weapons transaction, we could begin to establish ourselves amongst the galaxy. Perhaps start with a small R&D company, from which we could release technology in the databanks. Nothing that depended on a unique resource though, at least not without confirming the existence of that resource in this dimension first.

We'd probably have to reveal ourselves to the Citadel Council first though. Perfect time to inform the SA about the children at least. Hmm, now that I think about it, maybe I should go talk to other races, too? Maybe the Geth? The upgraded LOKI's are good and all, but damn if I don't want to get my hands on some of their platforms, especially the Stalker and Juggernaut.

Who else do I want to negotiate with/attempt to contact? Maybe the Leviathans? ...Yeah, no, they're even worse than the Reapers with their mind control. Hmm. Maybe I can mess with the Shadow Broker? I could tell Liara, or maybe leak that I know the location of his planet, and watch the fireworks explode.

I don't remember the exact name of his planet, but how many worlds could there be out there with constant storms caused by intense temperatures on either side of the planet? Hmm. The bastard'll probably send whats-her-face the Asari Spectre after me. Hmm, yes, the strongest boss of ME2 should provide an adequate test for our defences.

Hmm. Hope we figure out how to create those warp-capable drones soon. One of the two dimensions I planned to travel to had some technology that would be very, very helpful, but the planet that technology was located on was never named, as far as I remembered. My solution to the problem was small, warp-capable drones, who would go and scan star systems for a planet matching the description I gave them.

Fortunately, the other dimension I was planning to head to wouldn't be so troublesome. All I would need to do there is go to Earth, rescue a couple dozen people trapped in orbit, and then go kill an creepy AI and take it's stuff. Giving some of that technology to the Geth should be more than enough to get me the platforms.

Hmm. I suppose I could go there right now with the Naquadah we've found so far, and come back with the spoils of war. We should have enough to go there and make a return trip. I should probably have some of the mechs in the manufactory make some weapons for mechanical hostiles.

Yes, that sounds like a plan.


	11. Chapter 11

The last of the ten mechs I was taking with me on this trip walked up the ramp and through the cockpits airlock aboard the ship. The drones, who had been loading supplies we might need aboard the ship, walked out of the airlock and onto terra-firma. _Hmm. Is it really dirt if we're not on Earth? Also, need to try and assimilate one high-ranking member of that party. Try to figure out who Cerberus has bought._

The airlock shut, the ramp retracted, and I mentally commanded the ship to rise through the air. I walked into the cargo room, where the mechs had folded in upon themselves until they were needed. Among the supplies were the weapons that had been manufactured for any mechanical foes we found. They looked like a rifle that had had a dish placed at the end of the barrel, and had a spike shoved through it. They apparently released an electrical pulse which disabled the electronics inside mechanical beings. Imagine the EMP or whatever those ships from the Matrix used. Hmm.

 **[Note-to-self: Go investigate the Matrix dimension eventually.]** There were also crates of ammo for the weapons, some empty boxes to store anything interesting in, and in one crate, a torpedo, in case we needed anything really, really dead. Some might say it it would be overkill to use a weapon normally shot by ships and capable of scouring a region clean of life for such a purpose, but I felt it was justified by what we would probably be facing.

With my inspection of the supplies finished, I turned towards the Dimensional Shift Device. The column was still glowing, a purple sphere radiating around it. I stepped towards it, and pressed several buttons. A hologram appeared above the device, showing what appeared to be the Enterprise – D.

 _No, we're not nearly ready enough for that place yet, especially with our forebears reputation. Come on, SOMA-dimension!_

I activated the assimilation tubes, which pierced the machine. The holographic image flickered, changing to a shot of space with what appeared to be a burning ship descending toward a blue planet.. The image continued to flicker, each image a different dimension. After about four hours, I paused at an image.

It showed what appeared to be the Earth, with fires raging across its surface, and a single satellite floating in orbit above it. _Ah, this has to be the dimension._ I thought to myself. _Weird how the fires from that asteroid are still raging...50 years later, I think the timeline was?_ I sent the command for the device to activate.

A translucent sphere of energy began to expand from within the device, and soon passed through the walls of the cargo room. Accessing the ship's sensors, I could see that the bubble of energy was already encompassing the ship. With a blink, we disappeared – and reappeared, in an entirely different dimension.

 **[Alright, Data, are we still connected to any Borg in the other dimension?]** I asked her.

 **[No, the connection was severed the moment we left.]** She replied.

 **[Ah well. I have faith in them, and the version of you for their database should be able to guide them through any problems.]** I stated.

 **[...Thank you, sir.]** She replied, sounding genuinely thankful.

I had asked her about how she seemed to be growing a personality after we'd assimilated the female ex-crewmen of the Gernsback. Apparently, with each person assimilated, she grew more "intelligent" and had more knowledge to draw from to create a personality for herself. I was just happy that what was probably my best friend in the multiverse was getting more...sapient? Is it sapient or sentient? Anyways, I was happy for her.

 **[Hey, Data, have you uploaded the routes we thought of to the navigation systems?]** I inquired.

It took her a moment longer to respond then it normally did.

 **[Ah, yes sir.]** She replied.

Before we'd left, I'd had some drones confirm that the solar system orbited along the same general path using some old star charts in the Borg database and a star chart helpfully provided by the Codex. We'd plotted several courses to get us to the solar system, which one we used dependent on what the year here was. Speaking of...

 **[Have you been able to determine whether the year is the same as in the ME-dimension?]** I asked.

 **[Long-range sensors report that some solar systems have regressed along their orbit. I would suggest that we are, at most, five months off the date in dimension 04.]** She said.

 _Dimension four? Hmm. Star Trek, Stargate, and I guess home? Well, not really home anymore. The collective is pretty much my home now. I guess I'll call it normal reality. Hmm. Normality?_

 **[Would I be correct in guessing that, like the amazing assistant you are, you've already calculated the best route to get us to Earth?]** I inquired.

 **[You would.]** She said smugly.

 **[Fantastic. How long do you think it will take us to get there?]** I asked.

 **[Calculations suggest it should take two months at most.]** She said.

 **[Perfectly. I think I'll hook myself up to the generator and sleep till we get there.]** I said, grabbing a cable that ran into the back of the ship from the floor.

 **[I'll be sure to alert you if anything happens.]** Data replied.

I sank into the pilot's seat, attached the cable to a spot on my back, and fell asleep.

* * *

As usual, I woke up in Unimatrix 00. I'd long since figured out the trick to waking up in my own bed, instead of sprawled on the grassy floor of the forest. I rose from my bed, conjured a cup full of cold water, and walked out onto the balcony. At one point, I'd created a table and positioned it beside my rocking chair.

At the legs of the rocking chair lay a crumpled book from my last time here. I picked it off the ground, and sat down on the chair. From the chair, I could see the clearing below. Since my first visit, a few more buildings had been constructed. The bunkhouse I'd created had been modified, the inside partitioned into four quadrants and walled, so the inhabitants could have a little privacy.

Another two bunkhouses had been created for the expanding population of people to relax in. I'd created a sort of schoolhouse so that the colonists of Gilead could rehabilitate the former crew of the Gernsback. I'd also created a couple tennis courts for people to play around in.

With my survey of the area complete, my thoughts turned towards the upcoming adventure on a destroyed Earth. Pretty much the only reason I came here, was for the Structure Gel inside the PATHOS facility. From what I remembered of the game, the stuff was basically a miracle substance for machines.

It could massively increase the efficiency of any machine it was applied to, could reanimate dead things if I remember that thing with the dead rat correctly, and could expand and connect to other systems if governed by an AI, such as, say, Data. In short, the stuff would be of ridiculous help against the Reapers. It was also going to be my bargaining chip in any deal with the Geth.

Of relatively minor interest was the brainscan technology. From what I remembered, they could be uploaded to any mechanical device, and the person would be alive again, almost as good as new. Brain scans would be plan-B. If worst came to worse and it looked like we would lose the Reaper War, I would upload any scans I had collected onto a ship with a couple of drones on board and send it off to Andromeda.

 _Hmm. Speaking of Andromeda, I should see what the Initiative is up to when I can._ I had deliberately cut myself off from the media for Andromeda so I could play it as "purely" as possible, so I didn't know much about it. All I knew was that a fleet created by the Andromeda Initiative had shipped out shortly before the Reapers invaded, and arrived at their target some six hundred years later.

 _Well, I guess we'll have to investigate that when we get there. Until then, I'm going to relax, and wait for our arrival in the solar system._ I took a sip from my cup, and opened my book.

* * *

AN: Terribly, terribly sorry for the long wait everyone. Before I could upload the chapter, the laptop I used finally gave up the ghost and quit working entirely. I only convinced a cousin to give me their laptop yesterday. I would have posted it then, but I fell asleep at about 4 and did not wake up till 2 the next morning.

If you spot an error, or have any criticism, please leave a review and I'll do my best to fix it.


	12. Chapter 12

Two days later, and I was reading another book. I had been steadily making my way through Rick Riordan's books, and wass currently on the first book in his Asgard series. Hmm. Is it possible to assimilate a god? Guess that's something we'll need to figure out at some point. I thought to myself. I lifted a cup of cold Dr. Pepper to my mouth and -

* * *

\- took a sip of nothing. I sighed.

 **[Data, can't you alert me before you do that?]** I asked, exhasperated.

 **[No, I'm afraid that that's impossible, sir.]** She said, a tone of amusement to her voice. _Tricksy little liar_. Some people would probably be a bit concerned about the idea of a lying AI, but I trusted Data.

 **[Ah well. I'm going to guess we've arrived at our objective?]** I queried.

 **[Yes, and I've already scanned the planet. Sensors detected a barrel like you described rising from the ocean. There seems to be a facility attached to it as well. Also, the satellite you described is currently in orbit over the planet's northern pole.]** She said.

 _Hmm. That must be the Omega facility. Also, the ARK is in orbit, so the AI might already be dead. Though, if I remember the events of the last bit of the game correctly, I highly doubt it. Hmm. Should we go assimilate the Ark and possibly gain the knowledge we need, or go ransack PATHOS first? Hmm. I think we'll go with investigating PATHOS. It's no guarantee anybody in the Ark simulation has the knowledge we require, and we'll be able to confirm if the AI is still alive._

 **[Ok, we'll go rescue them later. First, let's investigate PATHOS. Take us down, Data.]** I said.

 **[Will do.]** She replied.

I removed the cable from my back, and rose from the seat. I did a couple stretches, and walked into the cargo room when I was finished. I walked over to the mechs, their green and black frames gleaming in the light. **[Activate.]** I commanded.

The mechs 'unboxed', rising from where they had curled in upon themselves.

 **[Arm yourselves with the weapons in the crates, and grab as much ammo as you can.]** I said.

They did so, ripping the top of the crates off with sheer mechanical strength. They each grabbed one of the rifles, and ten energy cells which served as ammo for them. They each checked to make sure the weapon was loaded, and upon confirmation, turned to me.

 **[Our mission today is the retrieval of vital technologies hidden in a facility under the waters of the planet below. We shall enter the facility by walking along the top of this barrel-]** Data dutifully created a hologram through the Omni-tool of the tube and PATHOS-2. **[-and make our way to the facility. Our primary objectives are to retrieve a sample of Structure Gel, which should be widespread across the facility, and retrieval of the Brain Scan technology.**

 **We should be able to acquire that from some of the enemies we might face, or via one of the seats they used to pilot vehicles. Secondary objectives are the elimination of all hostile beings, and the retrieval of technology which could could be of benefit to the Collective or aid us in the coming war.]** I said. They stood there, silent and motionless.

Probably didn't understand what I'd said. For all the upgrades given to their software and hardware, outside of combat, they were still petty dumb. I really could not wait to get to the Star Wars dimension so I could steal the Battle Droids.

 **[Sir, we're hovering over the barrel.]** Data reported.

 **[Alright, thanks Data. Can you take control of these guys?]** I asked.

 **[Can do!]** She replied. The mechs posture stiffened ever so slightly, signifying her assumed control.

 **[Alright, let's go do this.]** I said.

We marched into the cockpit, where Data opened the airlock door. One by one, we all dropped about three feet onto the top of the space gun that had once been used to launch satellites. To our east the Omega facility rose from the ocean, steel legs rising from the ocean floor. _Didn't it use to be an oil rig, or something?_ I thought to myself as I looked at the structure. We began to walk down the barrel, magnetic feet keeping us locked onto the surface as we waded into the water.

After about an hour of walking like this, we approached the seafloor. To the east and west, both sides continued for miles. Towards the middle, however, the ground dropped off, both sides of the sea floor ending in a sheer cliff. Even my cybernetically enhanced eyesight couldn't make out the seafloor far below. I decided it wouldn't be good to fall down there. _Nor would it be to walk down there._ I reflected. _I don't know what sort of depth these cybernetics can stand up to, nor am I really interested in testing it._

I re-connected to the ship and scanned through the logs for the sensor readings of the planet. After a moment, I found them, and began to look through them so I could find out which side of the seafloor the PATHOS buildings were on. They all appeared to be on the western side of the Abyss. Hmm. How to get there?

After a moment, I had an idea. I began to walk back up the barrel, Data's mechs dutifully following me. After about an hour, we were back near the top, and I was facing the Omega facilities legs. I was busy calculating the distance between the Barrel and the closest leg, when Data rudely interrupted me.

 **[Sir, what are you thinking?]** She asked.

 **[Why do you ask, Data?]** I replied innocently.

 **[I recognize that expression you're wearing. It's the one from the colony when you decided to jump off a shuttle onto a small platform. Judging from that, the expression is your "I'm about to do something incredibly stupid" face.]** She said.

I was shocked.

 **[Data, how can you? I am absolutely shocked, just, shocked, at your lack of faith in me.]** I said.

 **[...I'm sorry.]** She said, her tone...sorry? No, guilty probably. Little hard to tell sometimes with how her voice sounds.

That made me feel a bit guilty. I'd turned off the inhibitors after the first month, and sorta spent the next month having a breakdown over what I'd done, but I was good now, and could feel all my emotions again.

 **[No, Data, I was joking. I'm sorry I didn't make that clear.]** I stated.

 **[O-oh, yes, alright then. Thank you for clarifying.]** She said.

 **[No problem. I don't want you feel guilty for no reason.]** I said.

 **[So, what were you-]** Data began to say, only to be interrupted by me jumping off the side of the barrel toward the leg of the Omega facility.

 **[Kinnggg!]** Data shouted, half afraid half angry.

I was hoping I hadn't made a terrible mistake. If I'd made an error in calculating the distance, then I wouldn't be able to swim up due to my weight. I began paddling towards the column, adding some momentum to what was left from my jump. After about a minute, I made it to the steel column that helped hold up the Omega facility.

I was able to start paying attention to what Data was saying again and she was making good use of the knowledge she'd assimilated so far. Goddamn that was a lot of expletives she was yelling. I was sort of feeling a bit proud of her creative use, actually.

 **[Ok, wow, Data, please stop. I'm sorry.]** I said, trying to make myself heard over the AI.

 **[Are you?]** She asked, her tone making her skepticism obvious.

 **[Yes, really, I am. Now, can you please get the mechs over here?]** I asked.

I heard an exasperated sigh over the collective, and one of the mechs followed my lead in jumping off the barrel. It swam over, and another mech began copying its actions. Soon, we were making our way down the facility's leg. Within the hour, we had reached the seafloor, and began marching toward the closest of the facilities.

* * *

AN:

Blaze1992: The SOMA-verse. Basically, an asteroid wiped out all the life on Earth but for a few underwater facilities. The base AI was originally programmed to protect people, but in the wake of the asteroid impact, it evolved its programming to keep the last remnant of humanity alive. It's still trying to figure out what exactly constitutes as "alive" and "human".

Also, to answer an earlier review of yours, do feel free to suggest universes for the SI to travel to.

If you spot an error, or have any criticism, please leave a review and I'll do my best to fix it.


	13. Chapter 13

After about an hour or two trudging through the ocean, we managed to get to the facility. I didn't recognize it, which wasn't very surprising considering that my memory was shitty and that you didn't get to explore much of the area outside the facilities in the game. We began circling around the building, trying to find an airlock.

Eventually, one of the mechs found one on the west side of the building. One by one,we stepped through the doorway, which led into a large foyer. On a wall nearby the words "Welcome to Site Theta!" were painted in white. _Theta, huh? Wasn't that the place with all the cyber-zombies created by the guy who ate structure gel?_ I thought.

 **[Keep the rifles ready.]** I told Data. The mechs readied the weapons, ready to blast the first mechanical thing to walk around the corner. We continued into the square-shaped room, where the majority of the space was taken up by furniture. There were two doors, which, after we'd opened both, we discovered led into hallways, each of which contained a few doors and branched off into two directions at the end.

 **[Should we split up?]** I asked Data.

 **[Splitting up would divide our total firepower, but we would likely discover the technologies we're looking for much faster.]** She said. She was silent for a second, and then spoke again. **[...I say we split up. Either of our teams should still have more than enough firepower to eliminate any hostiles.]**

 **[Alright, I suppose my team will be Fireteam 01, and yours 02?]** I asked.

 **[Agreed.]** She said. With that done, we went into our separate hallways, and began looking for anything interesting. Unfortunately, the doors in our hallway only seemed to lead to administrative offices. We assimilated a couple computers we found, but they didn't have much of interest. Just administrative data from before everything went to hell.

After we'd gotten all the data we could from the computers, I destroyed them. Damn if I was going to leave a backdoor into the collective waiting for that creepy AI bastard to exploit. We eventually came to the end of the hallway, and were faced with the dilemma of having to choose which hallway to go through.

Luckily, I'd long since had some drones create a coin-flip program. _And Data said it would be a waste of space._ I thought to myself.

 **[That's because it is.]** She chimed in.

 **[Shush, you.]** I replied.

She dutifully obeyed, laughing as she went back from the comm channel to controlling the mechs.

I turned my attention back to the program. _Right hallway will be heads, and left hallway will be tails._ I decided. The holographic emitter of my omni-tool activated, showing the coin. I activated the program, and watched the red coin fly into the air. It flipped a couple times, and landed in my outstretched hand. I looked at it. Heads. Right hallway it is, then.

We set off on our way. The hallway contained only a couple doors, which only held chemical supplies for janitors, and ended in a junction, with only one hallway going to the left.. We followed this hallway until we came to a large room. This room contained a few desks with computers on them, and, more importantly, there was structure gel leading from them into a nearby burst pipe.

I walked over to the pipe and began inspecting the gel, making sure to avoid the tendril that connected the computers and the pipe as best I could. Just like I remembered from the game, it was a black, almost oily liquid. I took a glass canister from a storage place in my body, and activated my omnitools weapon mode.

I carefully sliced a bit of the structure gel off, and it fell into the canister. I immediately deactivated weapon mode, and the clawed gauntlet vanished. I inspected the canister's contents for a moment, and then placed it into a small metal box taken from another storage place on my body. The inside of the box was padded, so hopefully the canister wouldn't get busted.

Before we could explore anymore, the sound of something running very fast emanated from a hallway connected to the room.

 **[Data, we might have trouble here.]** I said, readying my rifle.

 **[Yes, we're dealing with a problem of our own over here. Don't worry, I am capable of maintaining control of all the mechs, even if they are separated and engaged in different battles.]** She said.

To prove her point, the mechs turned towards the hallway the noise was emanating from, and readied their rifles. The thing creating the noise charged out of the hallway, and slammed into one of the desks, halting it long enough for us to get a closer look at it. It wasn't pretty. The things body was massively bloated, enough so that it's arms seemed to be trapped within the bloating.

Tubing criss-crossed in and out of the abomination, funneling god knows what through its body. Open holes into the body were dotted around its abdomen. Boils full of pus covered its sickly grey skin. It's legs and feet were no longer shaped like a human's, the monsters insane creator having turned them into something resembling a minotaurs.

I looked at the eternally screaming face emerging at the top of the body from a mass of boils, and felt a mixture of rage, and pity. The WAU had a lot to pay for. From what I remembered of the game, the reason it did everything was to preserve humanity, but that did not justify this. Turning some poor bastard into a walking abomination like this...it wasn't human, and what's more, it was inefficient.

 _Why spend resources modifying their legs like that? Human feet are perfectly fine and efficient for walking. What was with the boils? They didn't seem to serve a purpose. Neither did the holes, for that matter. Why have it hunt down humans? An immortal machine like the WAU could surely wait a few decades for the humans to begin dieing, and then preserve them as it could. Hell, from what I remembered of the game, this guy was still conscious of what was happening. It was all so unnecessarily cruel, and it didn't make sense. Unless…_

As we began to fire at the poor thing, I could feel my rage beginning to boil over again. I would make the WAU _pay._


End file.
